Genocea Biosciences, a US-based vaccine development company backed by GlaxoSmithkline’s (GSK) corporate venturing division, has promoted Chip Clark to be executive president six months after he joined the company as chief business officer. He replaces Staph Leavenworth Bakali.
Clark previously had been chief business officer at Vanda Pharmaceuticals, been a principal at Care Capital, a venture capital firm that invested in Vanda, and spent 10 years at SmithKline Beecham (now part of GSK).
George Siber, executive chairman of Genocea’s board, said: "In Chip’s short time at Genocea, he has proven himself to be a tremendous asset to the company" and the company said he "played a critical role in closing the company’s $35m round of series B financing announced last month".
In January, two other corporate venturing units joined drugs company GSK’s SR One unit in the B round:
Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, which invests on behalf of medical device company Johnson & Johnson, and MP Healthcare Venture Management, a jointly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma and its parent company, Mitsubishi Chemical.
Alongside venture capital firm Skyline Ventures as the third new investor, were GSK’s SR One, and venture capital firms Auriga Partners, Cycad Group, and Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Lux Capital Management, Polaris Venture Partners and Morningside Ventures.
In February 2009, Genocea raised a $23m series A round led by Lux and Polaris, which had provided initial, undisclosed funding to Genocea in December 2006.