CTI BioPharma Names Bruce Seeley EVP, Chief Commercial Officer

(RTTNews) - CTI BioPharma Corp. (CTIC) Monday announced the appointment of Bruce Seeley as Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer. Seeley will report to James Bianco, CTI BioPharma's President and Chief Executive Officer.

Seeley joins the biopharmaceutical company effective today. He will serve on the executive leadership team, assuming responsibility for CTI BioPharma's commercial organization worldwide - including sales, marketing, commercial operations, medical affairs and supply chain.

In connection with the transition of medical affairs to the new Chief Commercial Officer, Jack Singer assumes the position of Chief Scientific Officer and will continue to serve as Executive Vice President, Interim Chief Medical Officer and Global Head of Translational Medicine.

The company noted that Seeley has more than 25 years of global commercial experience and a proven track record of successfully launching products in various markets and regulatory environments.

Seeley most recently served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Diagnostics at NanoString Technologies, Inc. overseeing the launch of the diagnostic product PROSIGNA for early stage breast cancer. Before joining NanoString, Seeley was Executive Vice President of Commercial at Seattle Genetics.

Bianco said, "His recent launch experience, particularly in blood-related cancers, will be of great value to the ongoing commercialization of PIXUVRI in the EU as well as the future advancement of our pipeline, including the potential launch of pacritinib for patients with myelofibrosis."

Seeley said, "Pacritinib is a unique, kinase inhibitor with specificity for JAK2, FLT3, IRAK1 and CSF1R, which are known targets for many blood cancers and solid tumors. I am excited by the potential value that pacritinib could bring to patients and to CTI BioPharma's pipeline. The recent positive data from the first pacritinib Phase 3 trial in myelofibrosis and the potential for this candidate in other blood-related cancers make it a very opportune time to be joining CTI BioPharma."