The evolution of combination immunotherapy: current successes & future goals

Roy D Baynes is Senior Vice President, Clinical Research and recently stepped down as Head of Global Clinical Development and Chief Medical Officer at Merck Research Laboratories in Rahway, New Jersey. He will retire from Merck at midyear and become Chief Medical Officer at Eikon Therapeutics, Inc. Under his leadership, Merck has become a leading oncology company and achieved more than 140 medicine and vaccine approvals globally across numerous therapeutic areas. He was previously Senior Vice President of Oncology, Inflammation and Respiratory Therapeutics at Gilead Sciences and prior to that was Vice President Global Clinical Development and Therapeutic Area (TA) Head for Hematology/Oncology, at Amgen Inc. In the early years of his tenure at Amgen before becoming TA head of Hematology/Oncology in Clinical Development he was TA head for Hematology/Oncology in Global Medical Affairs. He graduated as a Medical Doctor and obtained a Master of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. He has had a long and distinguished career in the hematology-on¬cology-and stem cell transplantation fields, including drug development, basic research, clinical practice, clinical research, teaching and administration. He is a member of many international societies, including the American Society of Hematology (ASH) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and has authored some 150 publications. Before joining Amgen in 2002, he was the Charles Martin Professor of Cancer Research at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, an NCI designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA.