TCR² Therapeutics Announces Commercial Cell Therapy Leader Shawn Tomasello Joins its Board of Directors

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TCR² Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: TCRR) (“TCR²” or the “Company”), a clinical-stage immunotherapy company with a pipeline of novel T cell therapies for patients suffering from cancer, today announced the appointment of Shawn Tomasello to its Board of Directors. With more than 35 years of broad commercial and medical affairs experience in the biotechnology industry, Ms. Tomasello has successfully built and led commercial operations at several companies, including Pharmacyclics, Celgene and Genentech. Her most recent role as Chief Commercial Officer at Kite Pharma involved establishing the infrastructure for manufacture and launch of T-cell therapy Yescarta for non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

“Shawn has an outstanding track record in overseeing commercial and medical affairs efforts at significant oncology companies that will be invaluable to our leadership team at TCR² as we near the advancement of gavo-cel into Phase 2 clinical trials,” said Garry Menzel, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of TCR² Therapeutics. “As with all of our board members, she is specifically an expert in the field of cell therapy and will help us make the right decisions as we broaden the use of our unique TRuC platform by expanding our novel pipeline and establish a larger commercial footprint to support that growth. We are delighted to welcome her to the team and accelerate our quest to provide meaningful therapies to cancer patients.”

Ms. Tomasello served as the Chief Commercial Officer of Kite Pharma, where she oversaw the global commercialization of Yescarta, from 2015 to 2018 including through its acquisition by Gilead for $11.9 billion in October 2017. She was previously Chief Commercial Officer at Pharmacyclics, where she led commercial and medical affairs activities for Imbruvica, a first-in-class treatment for hematologic malignancies, from August 2014 until its acquisition by AbbVie for $21.0 billion in August 2015. Prior to Pharmacyclics, Ms. Tomasello served in leading commercial roles with multiple major pharmaceutical companies, including Celgene as President of the Americas Hematology and Oncology, where she led the company through five successful product launches encompassing 11 indications and played a critical role in acquisitions. Ms. Tomasello received her B.S. in Marketing from the University of Cincinnati and her M.B.A. from Murray State University in Kentucky.