Viracta Therapeutics, Inc. announced the appointment of Darrel P. Cohen, M.D., Ph.D. as Chief Medical Officer (CMO), effective immediately. Dr. Cohen brings more than 25 years of global clinical research and drug development experience, having contributed to the successful regulatory submissions of multiple novel oncology therapies including SUTENT (sunitinib), XALKORI (crizotinib), and IBRANCE (palbociclib). Dr. Cohen will oversee the clinical development and regulatory advancement of Nana-val in Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated malignances, contribute to the strategic expansion of Viractas pipeline, and serve on the Executive Leadership Team.

Darrel is a highly accomplished physician and biopharmaceutical executive with an extraordinary depth of global clinical development and regulatory experience in both solid tumors and hematologic malignancies, having contributed to the approvals of multiple therapies across various oncology indications, said Mark Rothera, President and Chief Executive Officer of Viracta. Dr. Cohen is a hematologist/oncologist with more than 25 years of oncology clinical research and drug development experience. Most recently, Dr. Cohen was CMO of Cell Therapy at Athenex Inc., where he led clinical development, clinical operations, and regulatory affairs for its CAR-NKT cell therapy platform and was instrumental in accelerating clinical development plans for investigational products, KUR-501 and KUR-502.

Prior to this, Dr. Cohen was CMO at Biosight Pharmaceuticals and Head of Clinical Development at EUSA Pharma. He has held leadership positions of increasing responsibility at Pharmacia, Sanofi-Aventis, and Pfizer, including Vice President of Late-Phase Clinical Development at Pfizer Oncology where he was involved in multiple successful regulatory submissions of new targeted cancer drugs such as SUTENT, XALKORI, and IBRANCE. Dr. Cohen received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees in Medicine and Microbiology from Boston University School of Medicine, trained as a resident in Internal Medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center, and completed a fellowship in hematology/oncology at Duke University Medical Center.