• Dr. Berger brings 20 years of drug development experience highlighted by the FDA approvals of Mylotarg^® for acute myeloid leukemia, the only drug approved in AML in several decades, and Tykerb^® for breast cancer
  
• Dr. Dragan Cicic appointed to newly created position of Chief Technical Officer to execute on pipeline expansion and strategic initiatives

NEW YORK, Jan. 18, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE MKT:ATNM) ("Actinium" or "the Company"), a biopharmaceutical company developing innovative targeted therapies for cancers lacking effective treatment options, announced that Dr. Mark Berger has been appointed Chief Medical Officer effective today. Dr. Berger joins Actinium with significant drug development expertise that includes the planning and execution of clinical trials that led to the FDA approval of Mylotarg for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) while at Wyeth Research (now Pfizer), and Tykerb for breast cancer while at GlaxoSmithKline. He also has experience in patient care and lab-based cancer research. Dr. Berger will report to Sandesh Seth, Actinium’s Executive Chairman.

“Dr. Berger has a stellar track record in hematology/oncology research and drug development that makes him perfectly suited for the position of Chief Medical Officer at Actinium,” said Sandesh Seth. “Dr. Berger led the development of Mylotarg, which like Actimab-A, is a CD33 targeting agent. Mylotarg remains the only drug approved in AML in the last several decades, and Dr. Berger was integral to Mylotarg’s approval as highlighted by his presentation to ODAC. This along with Mark’s many other accomplishments in drug development, medical training and research experience gives us great confidence in his ability to build a robust clinical development organization to execute on the clinical development of Iomab-B, Actimab-A and our future clinical programs.” 

“I am impressed with the potential for Actinium’s radioimmunotherapy technology,” Dr. Berger said. “The data to date on Iomab-B and Actimab-A are very compelling and suggest that radioimmunotherapy has the potential to be safe and effective particularly in difficult clinical indications such as bone marrow transplant conditioning in patients with AML, or in the treatment of older patients with AML. I am excited to join the Actinium team and look forward to executing on a clinical development strategy that will bring these therapies to approval.”

In addition, Dr. Dragan Cicic, Actinium’s previous Chief Medical Officer, has been appointed to the newly created position of Chief Technology Officer. In his new role, Dr. Cicic will be responsible for leveraging Actinium’s alpha particle immunotherapy (APIT) technology platform to further expand Actinium’s clinical pipeline. Dr. Cicic will also be responsible for driving strategic initiatives including research collaborations and partnerships as well as continuing to expand relationships with the medical and scientific communities.

“Actinium’s growth and progress particularly in 2016 has been transformative and Dr. Berger’s joining is a continued step in that direction,” said Dr. Cicic. “I am excited to work with Dr. Berger and am confident that he will have a lasting impact on the execution of our late stage clinical trials. I welcome my new responsibilities and look forward to having the opportunity to focus extensively on our APIT platform to create value by laying the groundwork for new clinical programs and through strategic initiatives.”

Dr. Berger joins Actinium from Kadmon Corporation where he was Senior Vice President, Clinical Research. In this role he was responsible for all clinical aspects of new drug development including designing and managing clinical trials in oncology indications (non-small cell lung cancer and glioblastoma) and non-oncology indications (chronic graft versus host disease and polycystic kidney disease). Dr. Berger joined Kadmon after serving as Chief Medical Officer of Deciphera Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Deciphera, Dr. Berger was Vice President for Clinical Development at Gemin X Pharmaceuticals where he led the clinical strategy, design and management of clinical trials for two novel oncology agents including obatoclax, a pan Bcl-2 inhibitor. Based on the results of a randomized Phase 2 clinical trial of obatoclax, Gemin X was acquired by Cephalon in March of 2011 for a total consideration of $525 million including $225 million in an upfront cash payment.

Before his work with biotechnology companies, Dr. Berger held key positions in two global pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Berger previously served as Group Director, Medicine Development Centre-Oncology for GlaxoSmithKline. In this position Dr. Berger managed the development of Tykerb (lapatinib) in lung and breast cancer where he designed and led two Phase 2 clinical trials before planning and leading a 399 patient pivotal Phase 3 trial that resulted in the FDA approval of Tykerb in breast cancer.  In addition, he managed the Lapatinib Expanded Access Program (LEAP) that enrolled over 4000 patients on a global basis.  Dr. Berger began his career in drug development at Wyeth Research where he led the planning and execution of the pivotal Phase 2 trial for Mylotarg, which was the first antibody targeted chemotherapy agent and targeted CD33, similar to Actimab-A. He presented the Mylotarg clinical data at the FDA’s Oncology Drug Advisory Committee meeting, after which Mylotarg received accelerated FDA approval for patients with relapsed AML.

Dr. Berger has a B.A. in biology from Wesleyan University and received his M.D. from the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He did his Hematology-Oncology fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania where he was an Assistant Professor of Medicine, and also was a Research Fellow at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, both in London. Dr. Berger is board certified in internal medicine, hematology and medical oncology.

About Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company developing innovative targeted therapies for patients with cancers lacking effective treatment options. Actinium's proprietary platform utilizes monoclonal antibodies to deliver radioisotopes directly to cells of interest in order to kill those cells safely and effectively. The Company's lead product candidate Iomab-B is designed to be used, upon approval, in preparing patients for a hematopoietic stem cell transplant, commonly referred to as bone marrow transplant. A bone marrow transplant is often the only potential cure for patients with blood-borne cancers but the current standard preparation for a transplant requires chemotherapy and/or total body irradiation that result in significant toxicities. Actinium believes Iomab-B will enable a faster and less toxic preparation of patients seeking a bone marrow transplant, leading to increased transplant success and survival rates. The Company is currently conducting a single pivotal 150-patient, multicenter Phase 3 clinical study of Iomab-B in patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) age 55 and older. The Company's second product candidate, Actimab-A, is currently in a multicenter open-label, 53-patient Phase 2 trial for patients newly diagnosed with AML age 60 and over. Actimab-A is being developed to induce remissions in elderly patients with AML who lack effective treatment options and often cannot tolerate the toxicities of standard frontline therapies. Actinium is also utilizing its alpha-particle immunotherapy (APIT) technology platform to generate new drug candidates based on antibodies linked to the element Actinium-225 that are directed at various cancers that are blood-borne or form solid tumors. Actinium Pharmaceuticals is based in New York, NY. To learn more about Actinium Pharmaceuticals, please visit www.actiniumpharma.com and to follow @ActiniumPharma on Twitter please visit, www.twitter.com/actiniumpharma.

Forward-Looking Statements for Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on management's current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the statements. The forward-looking statements may include statements regarding product development, product potential, or financial performance. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed and actual results may differ materially from those projected. Actinium Pharmaceuticals undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Contact:

Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Steve O'Loughlin
Vice President, Finance and Corporate Development
soloughlin@actiniumpharma.com

Released January 18, 2017