A Greater Cincinnati company, and one of the region’s top-funded startups, has tapped a new president and CEO to lead its next phase of growth.
Covington-based Bexion Pharmaceuticals, a clinical stage oncology startup, appointed Richard "Scott" Shively as president and CEO, and a member of its board of directors, effective Feb. 1.
Shively succeeds Dr. Ray Takigiku, Bexion's founder. Takigiku will continue with the company as chief scientific officer, leading all scientific, clinical, research and development efforts and advising strategy.
Takigiku, in a release, said the hire comes as Bexion enters its next phase of growth. Takigiku, a former director for Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals, launched Bexion in 2006.
Today, the company stands as one region’s best-funded startups, having raised more than $55 million in capital, while currently seeking pre-IPO lead investors for its next round of funding.
"Founding Bexion and providing guidance to grow this organization has been a focal point of my career," Takigiku said in a release. "I am confident Scott is the right person to succeed in achieving the next level of financial growth to ensure Bexion's commercial success."
Shively is an experienced founder, CEO and CCO in the U.S. and international biopharma markets. He most recently served as CEO and co-founder of New Jersey-based Neumentum, a private clinical development stage company focused on pain and non-opioid pharmaceuticals.
Shively, in his career, has achieved growth by developing innovative strategies, acquiring assets, building teams, raising capital and launching new products, and has been involved in several exits for mid-sized biopharma companies.
In addition to his C-suite experience, Shively spent a number of years at Pfizer where he led global commercial efforts for products including Lyrica (pregabalin) and Celebrex (celecoxib).
Shively will maintain his home in New Jersey but will be on site at Bexion for extended stays, the company said.
Bexion, headquartered on Russell Street, at the head of Covington’s Innovation Alley, is developing an innovative, targeted approach to treating cancer, particularly brain and other solid tumors, via its lead product, BXQ-350. BXQ-350 takes advantage of the differences between normal cells and cancer cells.
Bexion has completed a multi-site first-in-human phase 1 clinical trial of BXQ-350 for solid tumors and gliomas, which occur in the brain and spinal cord. Bexion is in phase 1/2 trials for a rare pediatric brain tumor and plans to initiate two adult phase 2 programs in 2022.
The company last raised a $32.1 millions Series B in 2019 and has received $6 million in Small Business Innovation Research and National Institutes of Health grants.
Per an investor presentation released in September, Bexion is currently seeking pre-IPO lead investors for an open $50 million Series C, with $22 million committed.
Bexion, along with the city of Covington, Gravity Diagnostics, CTI and BioWish Technologies, which develops commercial products in agriculture and environmental markets, is currently partnering on an initiative to bring a new $10 million shared research and development lab to Covington.
The project has been earmarked by Gov. Andy Beshear in his proposed two-year budget, currently under reviewed by the 138-member Kentucky General Assembly.
