RA’ANANA, Israel and NEW YORK, June 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- UroGen Pharma Ltd. (Nasdaq:URGN), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing treatments to address unmet needs in the field of urology, with a focus on uro-oncology, today announced that Arie Belldegrun, MD, FACS, UroGen’s Chairman, will be honored with the prestigious EY Master Entrepreneur Award during the Entrepreneur of the Year 2018 Awards Gala on Thursday, June 14, 2018 in Los Angeles.
The Master Entrepreneur Award is an exclusive designation by the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year judging panel bestowed upon an individual who distinctly outperforms the customary characteristics of an entrepreneur, exemplifies leadership at its best, drives a successful business or brand with notable longevity and greatly contributes to the local economy and community.
“We congratulate Arie on this well-deserved honor,” said Ron Bentsur, Chief Executive Officer of UroGen. “Arie’s passion, drive and infectious spirit have led him to successfully develop paradigm-changing cancer treatments and advance several successful private and public biopharmaceutical companies. His leadership is invaluable as UroGen rapidly accelerates its lead product candidate, UGN-101 (MitoGel™) for the treatment of patients with low-grade upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC), with the goal of becoming the first-ever approved treatment for this patient population.”
“With a unique perspective of surgeon, researcher and entrepreneur, Arie has led a revolution that brought an entirely new type of medicine to the market while overcoming scientific and commercial challenges,” said Stuart Holden, MD, UroGen Board member. “Throughout his career, Arie has been committed to a singular vision: curing cancer. This mission has been at the heart of his work, growing small biopharmaceutical companies with promising technologies into leaders in the space with groundbreaking treatments for patients who previously had no other options. I commend Arie on this prestigious honor and am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with him developing innovative cancer treatments for patients in need.”
Dr. Belldegrun is the Chairman of UroGen. He has a distinguished career as a visionary surgeon, scientist and life sciences entrepreneur. Dr. Belldegrun founded Kite Pharma, a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development of innovative cancer immunotherapies where he served as Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer until the acquisition of Kite by Gilead Sciences in October 2017. He remains as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors for FosunKite, a joint venture formed between Fosun Pharma and Kite, a Gilead company, for the development of cell therapy in China. Dr. Belldegrun has had a distinguished tenure in the life sciences, having been closely involved with the founding and advancement of several successful biopharmaceutical companies, including Cougar Biotechnology and Agensys. Abiraterone, developed by Cougar, is a mainstay of therapy for patients with metastatic prostate cancer. Dr. Belldegrun most recently co-founded Allogene Therapeutics, a biotechnology company with a mission to catalyze the next revolution in cancer treatment through the development of allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T) therapy directed at blood cancers and solid tumors. He serves as Executive Chairman of Allogene as well as Two River Group, is a Co-Founder and Senior Managing Director of Vida Ventures, and previously served as a Board member of Cell Design Labs until its acquisition by Gilead in December 2017.
Dr. Belldegrun is a Professor of Urology, holds the Roy and Carol Doumani Chair in Urologic Oncology, and is Director of the UCLA Institute of Urologic Oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He is currently a member of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy Strategic Advisory Group.
Prior to joining UCLA, Dr. Belldegrun was at the National Cancer Institute/NIH as a research fellow in surgical oncology and immunotherapy under Dr. Steven A. Rosenberg. He completed his M.D. at the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem, his post-graduate studies in Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science, and his residency in Urologic Surgery at Harvard Medical School. He has authored several books in oncology and more than 500 scientific and medical papers related to urological cancers, immunotherapy, gene therapy, and cancer vaccines. He is certified by the American Board of Urology, and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons.
For more information on the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, please visit ey.com/eoy.
About UroGen Pharma Ltd.
UroGen Pharma Ltd. (Nasdaq:URGN) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing advanced non-surgical treatments to address unmet needs in the field of urology, with a focus on uro-oncology. UroGen has developed RTGel™, a proprietary sustained release, hydrogel-based platform technology that has the potential to improve therapeutic profiles of existing drugs. UroGen’s sustained release technology is designed to enable longer exposure of the urinary tract tissue to medications, making local therapy a potentially more effective treatment option. UroGen’s lead product candidates, UGN-101 (MitoGel™) and UGN-102 (VesiGel™), are designed to potentially remove tumors by non-surgical means and to treat several forms of non-muscle invasive urothelial cancer, including low-grade upper tract urothelial carcinoma and bladder cancer, respectively. UroGen is headquartered in Ra’anana, Israel with U.S. headquarters in New York.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including with respect to the timing and results of clinical development and commercial prospects of the product candidates in UroGen’s pipeline, including UGN-101 (MitoGel™), and the ability of UroGen to become a leader in the field of uro-oncology, particularly in the treatment of low-grade UTUC, which statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including, but not limited to: the potential approval of its first therapy; the ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approval; the scope, progress and expansion of developing and commercializing UroGen’s product candidates; and UroGen’s ability to attract or retain key management and personnel. In light of these risks and uncertainties, and other risks and uncertainties that are described in the Risk Factors section of our annual report for the year ended December 31, 2017 filed with the SEC on March 15, 2018 and other filings that UroGen makes with the SEC from time to time (which are available at http://www.sec.gov), the events and circumstances discussed in such forward-looking statements may not occur, and UroGen’s actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied thereby. Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release and are based on information available to UroGen as of the date of this release.
UROGEN CONTACT:
Kate Bechtold
Director, Corporate Communications & Investor Relations
KateB@urogen.com
914-552-0456
UroGen Pharma Ltd.
