UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

 

FORM 8-K

 

CURRENT REPORT

 

Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

 

Date of Report (date of earliest event reported): December 18, 2020

 

iBio, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in charter)

 

Delaware

(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation)

 

001-35023   26-2797813
(Commission File Number)   (IRS Employer Identification No.)

 

8800 HSC Parkway

Bryan, TX 77807

(Address of principal executive offices and zip code)

 

(979) 446-0027

(Registrant’s telephone number including area code)

 

(Former Name and Former Address)

 

Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of registrant under any of the following provisions:

 

  ¨ Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425)

 

  ¨ Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12)

 

  ¨ Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b))

 

  ¨ Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c))

 

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

 

Title of each class Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Stock, $0.001 par value per share IBIO NYSE American

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act of 1933 (§230.405 of this chapter) or Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (§240.12b-2 of this chapter).

 

Emerging growth company ¨

 

If an emerging growth company, indicate by checkmark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ¨

 

 

 

 

 

 

Item 5.02. Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers.

 

Appointment of President

 

On December 18, 2020, iBio, Inc. (the “Company”) appointed Tom Isett, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board to serve as its President.

 

Mr Isett, age 55, was appointed as Chief Executive Officer and Executive Co-Chair effective March 10, 2020. He was subsequently appointed as Chair of the Board effective June 12, 2020. He has served as a member of the Board since April 2019. In 2015, Mr. Isett founded both Commence Bio, Inc., a private, early stage developer of cellular immunotherapies, as well as i.e. Advising, LLC, a management and strategy consulting firm that advised Fortune 500 companies, private equity firms, biotechnology companies, and standard-setting organizations. Prior to 2015, he held leadership roles for bioprocess product and service businesses over his 25 combined years with GE, Lonza, and BD. Mr. Isett led a turnaround of the Core Microbiology diagnostic business at BD, and then went on to become the founding Vice President of Becton Dickinson’s BD Advanced Bioprocessing business, which he led from inception to over $60 million in revenues by 2009. While at Lonza from 2009 to 2012, he contributed to the rapid growth of the cell & gene therapy CDMO as Head of Cell Processing Technologies. Subsequently, at GE Life Sciences, he accelerated growth for the North American BioProcess business via the introduction of an integrated solutions strategy, along with new commercial and operating mechanisms to improve business execution.

 

Item 8.01 Other Events

 

Appointment of Chief Scientific Officer

 

On December 28, 2020, the Company announced the appointment of Dr. Martin B. Brenner to serve as the Company’s Chief Scientific Officer, effective January 18, 2021.

 

Dr. Brenner has a strong history of success heading drug discovery and development teams at several of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca (“AstraZeneca”), Eli Lilly and Company (“Lilly”), Pfizer Inc.(“Pfizer”), and Merck Research Laboratories (“Merck Research Labs”). Most recently, Dr. Brenner served as Senior Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer of Pfenex Inc. from March 2019 until its acquisition by Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated in October 2020. From 2017 to 2018, Dr. Brenner served as Chief Scientific Officer at Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotechnology company. From 2016 to 2017, Dr. Brenner served as Vice President and Head of Research and Early Development at Stoke Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company. From 2013 to 2016, Dr. Brenner served as Executive Director, Diabetes & NASH, and Chair of Diabetes & NASH Early Discovery Unit at Merck Research Lab. From 2012 to 2013, Dr. Brenner served as Senior Director, Head of Bioscience, CVMD at AstraZeneca . From 2009 to 2012, Dr. Brenner served as an Associate Research Fellow for the Diabetes Prevention and Remission Group at Pfizer . From 2003 to 2009, Dr. Brenner served as Senior Research Scientist for the Diabetes Drug Hunting Team at Lilly. Dr. Brenner holds a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the Veterinary School of Hannover in Hannover, Germany a DVM from Veterinary School of Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany.

 

Item 9.01. Financial Statements and Exhibits.

 

(d) Exhibits.

 

The following exhibits are filed with this Current Report on Form 8-K:

 

Exhibit
Number 		  Description
99.1   Press Release issued by iBio, Inc. on December 28, 2020

 

 

 

 

Signatures

 

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.

 

  IBIO INC.
   
Date: December 28, 2020 By:   /s/ Thomas F. Isett
    Name:   Thomas F. Isett
    Title: Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

 

 

 

 

Exhibit 99.1

 

iBio Appoints Dr. Martin B. Brenner as Chief Scientific Officer

 

Bryan, Texas / December 28, 2020 / (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) / iBio, Inc. (NYSEA:IBIO) (“iBio” or the “Company”), a biotech innovator and biologics contract manufacturing organization, today announced the appointment of Martin B. Brenner, DVM, Ph.D., as its Chief Scientific Officer (“CSO”), effective January 18, 2020.

 

“We are thrilled to have Dr. Brenner join our team,” said Tom Isett, Chairman & CEO of iBio. “Given his prior experience leading organizations with novel protein expression platforms to build proprietary product pipelines, Dr. Brenner should be uniquely suited to assist iBio with a similar transformation. Notably, he also brings a track-record of effective new target search and evaluation, as well as establishing productive collaborations.”

 

Dr. Brenner has a strong history of success heading drug discovery and development teams at several of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly and Company (“Lilly”), Pfizer Inc. (“Pfizer”), and Merck Research Laboratories (“Merk”). Most recently, Dr. Brenner served as the CSO at Pfenex Inc. (“Pfenex”), a NYSEA-listed company which, using its patented Pfēnex Expression Technology® platform, created an advanced pipeline of therapeutic equivalents, vaccines, biologics and biosimilars. Pfenex was acquired by Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated for approximately $516 million in October 2020.

 

Previously, Dr. Brenner served as the CSO at Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Recursion”), a company focused on accelerating drug discovery for rare diseases and diseases with high unmet medical need. Prior to his time at Recursion, he was Vice President and Head of Research & Early Development at Stoke Therapeutics, Inc. (“Stoke”), a biotechnology company using antisense oligonucleotides to increase gene expression for the treatment of rare diseases. Prior to Stoke, he was Executive Director at Merck, where he built a biotech unit from scratch, focusing his team’s research on diabetes and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Earlier in his career, Dr. Brenner was the Senior Director and Head of cardiovascular, renal, and metabolism (CVRM) biosciences at AstraZeneca. In addition, Dr. Brenner was an Associate Research Fellow at Pfizer where he led the islet biology and in vivo pharmacology in the CVMED Target Exploration Unit before assuming the role of Head of the Insulin Resistance Group.

 

“It has been captivating to watch the scale, scope and speed with which iBio has successfully transformed itself into a dynamic and diversified biotechnology company,” said Dr. Brenner. “That was made possible by iBio combining its proprietary FastPharming® and Glycaneering™ technologies to better control the way in which its plant-based expression system glycosylates proteins, thereby possibly improving the quality and, potentially in some cases, the efficacy of the biologics it produces. I am looking forward to being part of the iBio team as the Company executes the next stage of its growth strategy and seeks to expand its pipeline of innovative product candidates focused on pulmonology, oncology and fibrotic diseases.”

 

Dr. Brenner earned his DVM at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and his Ph.D. in Pharmacology at the Veterinary School of Hannover in Hannover, Germany. He received the Lilly Endocrine Research Award of Merit for Science, as well as the Lilly Pinnacle Award for Quality for Good Research Practice.

 

 

 

 

About iBio, Inc.

 

iBio is a global leader in plant-based biologics manufacturing. Its FastPharming® System combines vertical farming, automated hydroponics, and glycan engineering technologies to rapidly deliver high-quality monoclonal antibodies, vaccines, bioinks and other proteins. iBio is developing proprietary products on the FastPharming Platform, which include biopharmaceuticals for the treatment of fibrotic and infectious diseases, amongst others. The Company’s subsidiary, iBio CDMO LLC, provides FastPharming Contract Development and Manufacturing Services along with the Glycaneering Development Service™ for engineering high-performance recombinant glycoproteins. For more information, visit www.ibioinc.com.

 

Forward-Looking Statements

 

Certain statements in this press release constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Words such as “may,” “might,” “will,” “should,” “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “continue,” “predict,” “forecast,” “project,” “plan,” “intend” or similar expressions, or statements regarding intent, belief, or current expectations, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based upon current estimates and assumptions and include statements regarding the expected contribution of Dr. Brenner and the Company expanding its pipeline of innovative product candidates focused on pulmonology, oncology and fibrotic diseases. While the Company believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on any such forward-looking statements, which are based on information available to us on the date of this release. These forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations and assumptions from those set forth or implied by any forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, among others, the contribution of Dr. Brenner , the Company’s ability to obtain regulatory approvals for commercialization of its product candidates, including its infectious disease vaccines, or to comply with ongoing regulatory requirements, regulatory limitations relating to its ability to promote or commercialize its product candidates for specific indications, acceptance of its product candidates in the marketplace and the successful development, marketing or sale of products, its ability to maintain its license agreements, the continued maintenance and growth of its patent estate, its ability to establish and maintain collaborations, its ability to obtain or maintain the capital or grants necessary to fund its research and development activities, competition, its ability to retain its key employees or maintain its NYSE American listing, and the other factors discussed in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2020 and the Company’s subsequent filings with the SEC, including subsequent periodic reports on Form 10-Q and Form 8-K. The information in this release is provided only as of the date of this release, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release on account of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law.

 

Contact:

 

Stephen Kilmer

iBio, Inc.

Investor Relations

(646) 274-3580

skilmer@ibioinc.com