Biography

Dr. Hege retired from Bristol Myers Squibb in March of 2023. In her role as SVP Early Clinical Development, Hematology/Oncology & Cell Therapy, she was responsible for advancing a pipeline of small molecules, biologics and cell therapies from first-in-human studies through clinical proof-of-concept. In addition, she led the 2Seventybio (formerly bluebird)-partnered BCMA CART cell program (Abecma) in multiple myeloma from inception through FDA approval. Prior to BMS she held a similar role at Celgene as well as executive roles in biotech at Cell Genesys, Cellerant, and Theraclone.

In addition, Dr. Hege spent over two decades as a part time clinical faculty member in the division of hematology at the Univ. California, San Francisco (UCSF), most recently as Clinical Professor of Medicine. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Mersana Therapeutics and Graphite Bio and served on the Board of Directors of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) for a 3-year term from 2016-2019. Additional SITC activities have included the following roles: member of the SITC Executive Council, member of the Finance Committee, co-chair of the annual Women in Immunotherapy Network Leadership Institute conference, co-chair of the Cell Therapy Strategic Task Force, co-organizer of the Deep Dive Seminar Series, Sparkathon Faculty, Associate Editor of JITC, and co-chair of the Industry Committee.

Dr. Hege received her MD at UCSF and internal medicine and hematology/oncology subspecialty training at Harvard and UCSF, respectively. In 2015 she was recognized by Fierce Biotech as one of the top 12 women in Biopharma, in 2019 by the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association as a “Luminary”, in 2021 by San Francisco Business Times as one of the most influential women in Bay Area business, and in 2022 by UCSD with the Duane Roth Career Achievement Award for advances in science and medicine. Her career path and long history with CAR T cell development was featured as one of 25 physicians and scientists recognized as part of the 25^th anniversary celebration of Nature Medicine and by Forbes magazine in 2022 as one of “50 women over 50: entrepreneurs” in recognition of her leadership role in the development of Abecma.

SITC Election Platform Statement

What are the two or three critical issues facing the field of cancer immunotherapy?

There are two key issues facing this field: 1) iterative innovation in cellular immunotherapies and 2) increasing the hit rate for next generation off-the-shelf immune modulating drugs.  The cellular immunotherapy field is at a major inflection point with exquisite new gene editing tools available to program and engineer immune effector cells with novel targeting, functionality and control. Cellular starting materials include autologous, donor-derived allogeneic and iPSC-derived cells and multiple effector cell types are being investigated. Collaboration and interaction between academia, biopharma and health authorities is needed to rapidly evolve and iterate innovations across the cellular immunotherapy field to expedite manufacturing, optimize cellular engineering and expedite clinical evaluation. SITC can play a key role here to help the field develop new standards and guidelines to foster more rapid iteration. Secondly, the current success rate of second generation immune modulating drugs has been disappointing with a unacceptably high failure rate of next gen T cell checkpoint inhibitors, innate immune agonists and macrophage modulators. T cell engaging bispecific antibodies have demonstrated breakthrough results in hematologic cancers, but to date this hasn’t translated to solid tumors. SITC can play a key role in bringing the field together to learn, adapt and evolve to insure greater success and a higher hit rate in the future.

What is Your Vision for SITC?

I would like to see SITC become the leading society in the field of cancer immunotherapy with an expansive remit that covers the full gamut of small molecule, biologic and cellular immunotherapies. SITC’s strengths are greatest in the areas of science, education, advocacy and cross-functional collaboration. I would like to see SITC expand its role in bringing together stakeholders from academia, biotech, pharma, finance and FDA to engender the diversity of thought and idea generation required to tackle the challenges ahead. I would also like to see SITC expand its focus on diversity to ensure that the next generation of cancer immunotherapy physicians and scientists are more representative of the patients for whom we all work.

2023 SITC Election Homepage