Genentech is dismantling its cancer immunology team in a reorganization of its work in the field, and its VP of cancer immunology, Ira Mellman, will leave, the company confirmed to Endpoints News.
The decision was made “based on shifts in the science of immuno-oncology,” a Genentech spokesperson told Endpoints via email, and the company plans to combine its cancer immunology and molecular oncology research groups “under a single oncology organization.”
“I am leaving as a consequence of a decision to dissolve Cancer Immunology as a free-standing entity. Ours was possibly the largest (and of course best) group in industry or academia devoted to the subject,” Mellman said in an email to Endpoints.
Mellman is a prominent academic-turned-executive who joined Genentech from Yale in 2007 to lead all of the company’s cancer research. He established Genentech’s cancer immunology team and moved to lead it in 2013. He is best known for his discovery of endosomes, the membranous packages that cells use to move proteins around.
At Genentech, Mellman oversaw the discovery and development of Tecentriq — the checkpoint inhibitor that has been central to Roche’s oncology portfolio — Lunsumio, and the company’s anti-TIGIT program, among others. He also led research dissecting the mechanism behind how PD-L1 works in cancer.
Genentech’s spokesperson said Mellman would depart in the coming months. In addition, “a limited number of employees” will be let go, the company said.
Genentech, which is part of Swiss pharma Roche, also said it will move certain discovery efforts within its Department of Human Pathobiology & OMNI Reverse Translation to the Departments of Immunology and Neuroscience in Research Biology.
Genentech’s spokesperson said this latest move was “independent” from its decision announced in April to cut 3% of its staff.