Genentech is dismantling its cancer immunology team in a reorganization of its work in the field, and its VP of cancer immunology, Ira Mellman, will leave, the company confirmed to Endpoints News.
The decision was made “based on shifts in the science of immuno-oncology,” a Genentech spokesperson told Endpoints via email, and the company plans to combine its cancer immunology and molecular oncology research groups “under a single oncology organization.”
“I am leaving as a consequence of a decision to dissolve Cancer Immunology as a free-standing entity. Ours was possibly the largest (and of course best) group in industry or academia devoted to the subject,” Mellman said in an email to Endpoints.
Mellman is a prominent academic-turned-executive who joined Genentech from Yale in 2007 to lead all of the company’s cancer research. He established Genentech’s cancer immunology team and moved to lead it in 2013. He is best known for his
