Exhibit 99.1
ChemoCentryx Announces Changes to its Board of Directors
— David E. Wheadon, M.D., Elected to the Board as an Independent Director –
— Henry A. McKinnell, Jr., to Retire from Board —
SAN CARLOS, Calif., May 31, 2022 — ChemoCentryx, Inc., (Nasdaq: CCXI), today announced changes to the composition of its Board of Directors. David E. Wheadon, M.D., has been elected to the Board as an independent director, and Henry A. McKinnell, Jr., Ph.D., is retiring from the Board, effective May 26, 2022.
“Dr. David E. Wheadon adds strength and depth to our Board,” said Thomas J. Schall, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of ChemoCentryx. “We look forward to benefitting from his extensive knowledge in science, clinical, and regulatory affairs as we seek to expand TAVNEOS’s commercial and clinical activities, advance our novel small molecule checkpoint inhibitor, CCX559, for the treatment of cancer, and bring additional pipeline assets to patients in need. We are also grateful to retiring Director Hank McKinnell for his tenure and contributions to the Board during an important time in the Company’s history.”
Dr. Wheadon retired from AstraZeneca PLC in 2019 as Senior Vice President, Global Regulatory Affairs, Patient Safety and Quality Assurance, a position he had held since 2014. Before joining AstraZeneca, Dr. Wheadon held a variety of leadership roles in the healthcare sector, including Executive Vice President, Research and Advocacy at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Senior Vice President of Global Pharmaceutical Regulatory and Medical Sciences at Abbott Laboratories, and Senior Vice President of U.S. Regulatory Affairs at GlaxoSmithKline Laboratories. Dr. Wheadon has also served as Senior Vice President, Scientific and Regulatory Affairs at PhRMA, the Washington D.C.-based Pharmaceutical Industry Research and Manufacturers Association, during which time he interacted with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Dr. Wheadon holds a M.D. from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and an A.B. in Biology from Harvard University. He completed his postdoctoral training in Psychiatry at Tufts/New England Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. He currently serves on the boards of Karuna Therapeutics Inc., Sotera Health Company, and Vaxart, Inc.
“ChemoCentryx combines a passionate focus on unmet needs with proven expertise in drug discovery and development,” said Dr. Wheadon. “I look forward to working closely with my new colleagues in this rapidly growing organization to bring small molecule therapeutics to those who need it the most.”
About ChemoCentryx
ChemoCentryx is a biopharmaceutical company commercializing and developing new medications for inflammatory and autoimmune diseases and cancer. ChemoCentryx targets the chemokine and chemoattractant systems to discover, develop and commercialize orally administered therapies. In the United States, ChemoCentryx markets TAVNEOS® (avacopan), the first approved orally administered inhibitor of the complement 5a receptor as an adjunctive treatment for adult patients with severe active ANCA-associated vasculitis. TAVNEOS is also in late-stage clinical development for the treatment of severe hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) and C3 glomerulopathy (C3G). Additionally, ChemoCentryx has early-stage drug candidates that target chemoattractant receptors in other inflammatory and autoimmune diseases and in cancer. For more information about the Company visit www.chemocentryx.com.
