Dendreon Adds 5 Senior Execs

Dendreon Pharmaceuticals LLC expanded its senior management with three new hires and two promotions.

The biopharmaceutical firm returned its headquarters to OC this summer after a sale.

Chris Carr, a veteran of Abbott Laboratories, has joined as chief financial officer

Christina Yi has been promoted to chief operations officer

Matt Kemp has been promoted to chief commercial officer

Kevin Helmbacher joins as general counsel and senior vice president of legal and compliance

Beth Mueller has joined as senior vice president of human resources

Dendreon has also added 60 employees companywide since it relocated from Bridgewater, N.J. to Seal Beach in June. It has 500 employees, with 140 locally.

The move came after former owner Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. sold Dendreon to privately held Sanpower Group Co. Ltd. in Najing, China, for nearly $820 million.

Dendreon had filed for bankruptcy and was acquired by Valeant in 2015.

The company sells Provenge, an immunotherapy for men with advanced prostate cancer, which the FDA approved in 2010.