Biotech Head, Leslie Chong Has Described Female Chiefs as “Unicorns”

Leslie Chong, Chief Executive of Australian-listed drug developer, Imugene, has spoken out about the idea of the glass ceiling as she believes there are plenty of capable women out there but for “whatever reason” men hold most CEO positions in the science and tech industry.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Ms Chong is hoping she can reverse this trend as she helps her company break new ground in cancer drugs.

–   Ms Chong has developed in this sector over 19 years, with hopes to lead the way in immo-oncology treatments and her quest is personal as her father died from gastric cancer.

–   “What turned into a purely-financial itch, or means to get by, has turned into a passion”.

• Imugene’s work is centred around the HER 2 receptor which is present in about 20 per cent of gastric and breast cancers.
• The Company is developing a B-cell vaccine designed to stimulate a patient’s own immune system to produce antibodies to repeatedly attack the cancer.

“When I have to present to a large audience, I can’t help but say to the audience that ‘I’m the only women presenting today, you need to ask yourself why’,” she said. “That is important to me. I understand what I may represent for the rest of the people. I’m not trying to make myself a martyr but I do think it’s harder and I do have to be better — that could be self-driven but it could also be ­socially driven as well.

“On a daily basis I wake up and think, I’m a woman CEO of a biotech company … I’m humbled by it and feel I have to work harder because of that, because I’m representing here, in a lot of ways.”

“Imugene was in that niche area, where they are taking good technology and trying to put that in the forefront of a biotech development company.”

Imugene is a clinical stage immuno-oncology company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. Its lead product is HER-Vaxx, a B Cell peptide vaccine for the treatment of gastric cancer. The company is also developing mimotope-based immunotherapies against validated and new oncology targets.

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