PALM BEACH GARDENS: Xcovery Holdings Inc. announced that Giovanni Selvaggi, M.D., has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), replacing Li Mao, M.D., who is leaving for personal reasons.

Dr. Selvaggi will also continue as Xcovery’s Chief Medical Officer (CMO).

“Giovanni is the right leader for Xcovery,” said Lieming Ding, M.D., Chairman of the Board. “For the past two years, Giovanni has been successfully driving forward the ensartinib and vorolanib clinical programs as the company CMO. His proven leadership and industry expertise will be crucial for the regulatory and commercial success of our drugs.”

“Xcovery is at a critical yet very exciting juncture,” stated Dr. Selvaggi. “I’m ready to take on the new challenges and responsibilities. We have a very good late stage clinical program in ensartinib, which has the potential to be the best-in-class treatment for ALK+ NSCLC patients. We are taking the drug over the finish line so NSCLC patients can have a new option to fight the disease.”

Dr. Selvaggi received his medical degree at the University of Torino Medical School in 1992 and served as physician of Thoracic Oncology in Torino over a span of 16 years. Dr. Selvaggi joined the pharmaceutical industry in 2010 as a medical director at GlaxoSmithKline.

He then played an instrumental role in the successful development and registration of ceritinib (Zykadia) at Novartis. Dr. Selvaggi was also at Bristol-Myers Squibb as Program Lead in different thoracic malignancies with a focus on SCLC. From March 2019, Dr. Selvaggi has been the Chief Medical Officer at Xcovery.

Xcovery is a biopharmaceutical company working to improve the lives of patients with cancer by discovering medicines to fight advanced tumors. Xcovery is developing a pipeline of oncology therapies to target a wide range of advanced tumors. www.xcovery.com