SAN DIEGO– Fate Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of programmed cellular immunotherapies for cancer and immune disorders, announced that Dr. Shefali Agarwal has been appointed to the Company’s Board of Directors.
Dr. Agarwal is currently the Chief Medical Officer of Epizyme, Inc., a clinical-stage company developing novel epigenetic therapies for cancer and other serious diseases, where she leads the global clinical development and regulatory strategy for tazemetostat for the treatment of cancer. She brings to the Company nearly two decades of clinical development and regulatory experience in oncology.
“Shefali is an accomplished leader with proven expertise in the late-stage development of innovative cancer therapies for the treatment of hematologic malignancies and solid tumors, and we are pleased to welcome her to our Board,” said Scott Wolchko, President and Chief Executive Officer of Fate Therapeutics. “We look forward to benefiting from Shefali’s breadth of clinical and regulatory experience at this exciting time for the Company as we advance our deep pipeline of iPSC-derived NK cell and T-cell product candidates for the treatment of cancer.”
“I have watched with excitement as Fate Therapeutics successfully translated its unrivaled expertise in iPSC technology and became the first company to clinically make and use clonal master iPSC lines for the mass production of off-the-shelf cell products,” said Dr. Agarwal. “I look forward to working closely with the Board and executive management team as the Company continues to lead in bringing cell-based cancer immunotherapies that can be delivered “on demand” and administered in multiple doses to cancer patients as a means of driving deep durable responses.”
Over the span of her career as a trained physician with expertise in medical oncology, Dr. Agarwal has held leadership positions across clinical development, medical research, clinical operations, regulatory, and medical affairs. Prior to joining Epizyme as Chief Medical Officer in July 2018, Dr. Agarwal served as Chief Medical Officer at SQZ Biotech, where she built and led the clinical development organization, which included clinical research operations and regulatory functions. Dr. Agarwal has also held senior leadership positions at Curis, Inc., where she oversaw the Phase 2 study of its dual HDAC/PI3K inhibitor in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, and at Tesaro, Inc., where she served as the clinical lead for the New Drug Application and the European Medicines Agency regulatory submissions and supported the commercial launch of ZEJULA® (niraparib) in ovarian cancer. She has also held positions of increasing responsibility at Covidien, AVEO Oncology and Pfizer, and led clinical research in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Agarwal received her medical degree from Karnataka University’s Mahadevappa Rampure Medical School in India. Additionally, Dr. Agarwal earned a master’s of public health from Johns Hopkins University and a master’s of science in business from the University of Baltimore’s Merrick School of Business.
