Abgenix Continues to Expand Its Product Development Capabilities
FREMONT, Calif., May 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Abgenix, Inc. (Nasdaq: ABGX)
announced today that it has hired Patrick Murphy as Vice President,
Manufacturing. Mr. Murphy has extensive experience in all aspects of
biopharmaceutical manufacturing. In his eighteen years with Genentech, Inc.,
most recently as Director, Strategic Operations, Mr. Murphy helped guide
seven new products through the manufacturing, approval and facility licensing
process.
"Abgenix has much to gain from Mr. Murphy's wide ranging experience in
drug manufacturing as we continue to expand our product development
capabilities," stated R. Scott Greer, chairman and chief executive officer of
Abgenix. "Our goal is to build Abgenix into a leading developer of
antibody-based products."
Abgenix, now with three vice presidents overseeing product development,
expects to double the size of its product development staff in 2000.
Mr. Murphy, along with Dr. Steven Chamow, who joined Abgenix last month as
Vice President, Process Sciences and who also had spent many years at
Genentech, will together be responsible for building Abgenix's antibody
production capability. Dr. Gisela Schwab, who joined Abgenix last fall from
Amgen, Inc., is continuing to grow the company's clinical and regulatory
organization.
Abgenix is a biopharmaceutical company that develops and intends to
commercialize antibody therapies for the treatment of such conditions as
transplant-related diseases, inflammatory and autoimmune disorders,
cardiovascular disease, infectious diseases, and cancer. For more information
on Abgenix, visit the company's Web site at http://www.abgenix.com.
Abgenix developed XenoMouse technology to enable the rapid generation of
high affinity, fully human antibody product candidates to essentially any
disease target appropriate for antibody therapy. Abgenix has collaborative
arrangements with multiple pharmaceutical, genomics, and biotechnology
companies involving its XenoMouse technology. In addition, Abgenix has
multiple proprietary antibody product candidates under development internally,
three of which are in human clinical trials for graft-versus-host disease,
psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, and cancer.
Statements made in this press release about Abgenix's XenoMouse
technology, product development activities and collaborative arrangements
other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and
are subject to a number of uncertainties that could cause actual results to
differ materially from the statements made, including risks associated with
the success of clinical trials, the progress of research and product
development programs, the regulatory approval process, competitive products,
future capital requirements and the extent and breadth of Abgenix's patent
portfolio. Please see Abgenix's public filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission for information about risks that may affect Abgenix.
SOURCE Abgenix, Inc.
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http://www.abgenix.com
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http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/126548.html or fax,
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CONTACT:
Kurt Leutzinger, Chief Financial Officer of
Abgenix, Inc., 510-608-6575
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