CAR-T player Cellectis poaches Stefan Scherer from Novartis | Tech Science

Cellectis has named Stefan Scherer, M.D., Ph.D., as its SVP of clinical development. Scherer joins the off-the-shelf CAR-T pioneer from Novartis, where he headed up U.S. oncology early development and strategy.

France’s Cellectis is working to advance allogeneic CAR-T drugs into and through clinical development internally and in collaboration with Arie Belldegrun’s Allogene Therapeutics. With those activities gathering pace, Cellectis has bolstered its access to North American clinical development expertise by hiring Scherer to work out of its New York office.

On paper, Depil and Scherer have complementary experience and expertise. Cellectis CEO André Choulika highlighted Scherer’s strengths in a statement, pointing to the SVP’s “strong track record of alliance- and relationship-building” to talk up his likely impact on the biotech.

“As we continue to evolve our efforts to accelerate the access to patients of our off-the-shelf, gene-edited CAR T-cell product candidates, Stefan will be a key driver in the advancement of our product pipeline and programs overall,” Choulika said.