HAMPTON, N.J., Aug. 11, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLDX) today announced that the Company has promoted Elizabeth Crowley to the newly created position of Senior Vice President, Chief Product Development Officer. Ms. Crowley was previously Senior Vice President of Product Development of Celldex and brings almost 25 years of industry experience where she was responsible for leading the execution of multiple successful drug development programs.

“Celldex was founded on the belief that combination regimens designed to unlock the power of the immune system would deliver the greatest benefit to the largest population of patients,” said Anthony Marucci, Co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Celldex Therapeutics. “This newly created position is a direct response to the future of portfolio planning and drug development in the immuno-oncology field where we believe multi-drug combination regimens will become the norm and the development programs to explore these opportunities will become increasingly complex. Beth’s deep, oncology-focused experience in strategic planning, portfolio management and implementation have played a critical role in building the depth and breadth of our pipeline to date and an exceptional development operations team here at Celldex. We look forward to her continued expertise in this expanded leadership role.”

"Celldex has thoughtfully seeded a pipeline with individual product candidates that uniquely manipulate the immune system at key points,” said Ms. Crowley. “With successful proof of concept work achieved, we have now entered the next phase of development and are extensively exploring multi-drug combination regimens. I look forward to working closely with my Celldex colleagues across the organization as we expand this approach in our ongoing efforts to improve outcomes for patients and their families.”

Ms. Crowley joined Celldex in 2009 as Vice President, Clinical Development. Prior to that, she held several senior level roles at CuraGen Corporation, most recently serving as the Vice President of Development Operations, responsible for strategic and operational development activities of the oncology and oncology supportive care portfolio, regulatory affairs, clinical operations and data management. Ms. Crowley started her career at Bayer Corporation in 1992, holding various positions providing leadership of clinical research and project management prior to completing her tenure there as the Director of Global Study Audit Management, assuring the highest standards for program execution. Ms. Crowley received her BS in Chemistry with a concentration in Business from Boston College.

About Celldex Therapeutics, Inc.

Celldex is developing targeted therapeutics to address devastating diseases for which available treatments are inadequate. Our pipeline is built from a proprietary portfolio of antibodies and immunomodulators used alone and in strategic combinations to create novel, disease-specific therapies that induce, enhance or suppress the body's immune response. Visit www.celldex.com.