FEAR & GREED | Business News Q+A: How this biotech CEO keeps the faith in a cancer cure
Feb 25, 2026
Leslie Chong, CEO and Managing Director of Imugene with decades in cancer drug development. She discusses why she stays committed to long biotech timelines. She names azur‑cel as the lead CAR‑T prospect and explains its off‑the‑shelf donor approach. She covers trial stages, FDA feedback, fast‑to‑market niche strategies, and choices between partnering or commercialising alone.
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Three Decades Chasing A Cancer Cure
- Leslie Chong has worked in cancer drug development for about 28 years and sees finding a cure as a lifelong mission.
- She describes personal pride in being part of drug development most of her adult life, which sustains her through long timelines.
Azurcel Shows High Response In Late Stage Lymphoma
- Azurcel is an allogeneic CAR-T using healthy donor T cells that are genetically modified and shipped to trial sites.
- Imugene reports ~83% response in late-stage diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and ~82% in CAR-T naive cohorts, indicating strong activity in heavily pretreated patients.
Use Early Phase Wins To Accelerate Approval
- For CAR-T therapies the regulatory path can be shorter: typically phase 1 then an expedited phase 2/registrational study.
- Imugene obtained FDA feedback on a registrational strategy after completing phase 1b, enabling a faster route to approval.