Prior to founding XBiotech, Mr. Simard was founder and Chief Executive Officer of CTL ImmunoTherapies Corp., a developer of therapeutic vaccines to treat cancer and chronic infectious disease; he was also founder of AlleCure Corp. of Valencia, California, a developer of allergy treatments and immune-modulating therapies. In 2001, AlleCure and CTL ImmunoTherapies merged to form MannKind Corp., where Mr. Simard served as Corporate Vice President and board member. Mr. Simard holds a degree in Biochemistry from the University of Saskatchewan and attended graduate studies in Medical Biophysics/Immunology at the University of Toronto. He has more than 140 issued and pending patents related to cancer therapy, therapeutic vaccines and therapeutic antibodies, as well as substantial peer-reviewed scientific publications and the textbook Immune Response Genes.