Just months after appointing a CEO, Legend Biotech — a spinout of CDMO Genscript Biotech — had to quickly put an interim CEO in place after leader Dr. Frank Zhang was put under “residential surveillance” by China law enforcement.
Zhang, formerly the chairman of Genscript before accepting the position at Legend, will have his freedom for up to six months as part of a customs investigation involving GenScript. On Sept. 17, China’s Customs Anti-Smuggling Department inspected GenScript’s offices and subsidiaries in Nanjing and Zhenjiang, including Legend, due to suspected violations of import and export regulations. Four other Legend Biotech employees who were previously employed by GenScript were also questioned.
As a result of this situation, the Board of Directors has appointed Dr. Ying Huang to serve as interim CEO, effective immediately.
In December of 2017, Janssen Biotech announced it would be partnering with Legend to develop, manufacture and commercialize a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell drug candidate, LCAR-B38M.
Read the press release