Tocagen Appoints Lori Kunkel as Acting Chief Medical Officer

Tocagen (NASDAQ: [[ticker:TOCA]]), which is developing a gene therapy for brain cancer, said Thursday it has appointed board member Lori Kunkel as its acting chief medical officer effective Nov. 26. The San Diego-based company said its current CMO and senior vice president, Asha Das, is leaving as of Nov. 23 to “focus on unforeseen and immediate personal matters.”

Kunkel, who joined Tocagen’s board about three years ago, has previously held the CMO role at Loxo Oncology, Pharmacyclics, which was acquired by AbbVie (NYSE: [[ticker:ABBV]]), and Proteolix, which was acquired by Onyx Pharmaceuticals. Tocagen said it has initiated a search to fill the position.

Author: Sarah de Crescenzo

Sarah is Xconomy's San Diego-based editor. Prior to joining the team in 2018, she wrote about startups, tech and finance at the San Diego Business Journal. Her decade of full-time news experience includes coverage of subjects including campaign finance, crime and courts as a reporter and editor at outlets throughout California, including the Orange County Register. She earned a bachelor's degree in English Literature at UC San Diego, where she wrote for the student newspaper and played collegiate lacrosse. In 2019, she earned an MBA at UC Irvine. View all posts by Sarah de Crescenzo