Cellectar Biosciences, Inc. announced that it has appointed John Friend, II, M.D. as vice president and chief medical officer effective April 17, 2017. Cellectar has accelerated and expanded its research and development program to include multiple clinical trials for lead product candidate CLR 131, as well as the active preclinical development of additional compounds utilizing PDC platform. Dr. Friend, age 47, brings 15 years of global drug development expertise and general management experience in oncology, inflammation, endocrine/metabolism, and pain management to Cellectar. Prior to joining the company, John spent more than seven years at Helsinn Therapeutics leading its research and development division. Most recently he served as senior vice president of Medical and Scientific Affairs at Helsinn, building the non-clinical, clinical, medical and regulatory affairs teams to lead multiple global franchises from early product development to market commercialization. Prior to his time at Helsinn, Dr. Friend held executive responsibility for clinical research, medical affairs, pharmacovigilance and risk management at various pharmaceutical companies including Akros Pharma, Actavis, Alpharma, Hospira and Abbott.