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Christopher Henney (born 1941) is an American immunologist and biotechnology entrepreneur who co-founded Immunex Corp. and Icos Corporation, and led Dendreon Corp. to the development of the first FDA-approved cancer vaccination therapy.
Henney was born in 1941 in Birmingham, England. He was educated at Prince Albert School, King Edward VI School Aston, [1] and at the University of Birmingham. Where he earned a B.Sc in 1962, a Ph.D in 1965, and was awarded a D.Sc. for his contributions to the field of immunology in 1972. [2] [3]
After his postdoctoral studies at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and the Immunoglobulin Reference Centre in Lausanne, Switzerland, he was appointed to the faculty of Johns Hopkins University Medical School [1972-1978], before taking the first chair of Basic Immunology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle in 1978. [4] [5] [6]
Henney, with Steven Gillis and Stephen Duzan co-founded Immunex Corporation in 1980. Immunex developed Leukine, an agent for the stimulation of white blood cells after chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation. The company also developed Enbrel for autoimmune diseases and has proven a particularly important drug for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Immunex was acquired by Amgen Inc in 2002, in what was, at the time, the financially most important sale in the biotechnology sector [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
In 1989, Henney co-founded Icos Corporation with George Rathman, Amgen co-founder and CEO, and Genetic Systems founder Robert Nowinski. The company developed Cialis for erectile dysfunction and was acquired by Eli Lilly in 2007. [14] [15]
Henney led Dendreon Corp as CEO from 1995 to 2003 and Chairman from 1995 to 2005. Dendreon a cell-based therapy company developed Provenge for the treatment of prostate cancer, the first FDA-approved cancer vaccine therapy. [16] [17] [18] [19]
Over 40 year period Henney served as chairman for many publicly-held biotechnology companies including: Dendreon, Cyclacel Corp., Cascadian Therapeutics, SGX Pharmaceutics, and Anthera Pharmaceuticals and on the board of many others including Immunex, Icos, and Prothena [20]
In 2011, Henney was inducted into the Biotech Hall of Fame. [21]
In 2019, Henney was inducted into the Washington Life Science Hall of Fame. [22]
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