Alan Higgins Hired as Senior Director, Investigational Medicine,
And Faye O'Brien as Senior Director, Healthcare Marketing
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., June 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
Paradigm Genetics, Inc. (Nasdaq: PDGM) today announced the appointment of
Alan J. Higgins, Ph.D., as Senior Director, Investigational Medicine, and Faye
S. O'Brien as Senior Director, Healthcare Marketing. Higgins, who has more
than 30 years experience directing drug discovery and development, and
O'Brien, who brings nearly 15 years of biotech marketing and business
development experience to Paradigm, will report to Tom Colatsky, Ph.D., Vice
President of Healthcare Research.
"These significant appointments help us move our human health R&D effort
to the next level," said Dr. Colatsky. "Alan Higgins is a successful research
director with a very strong business orientation. We will look to him to lead
a seamless discovery process for our human health efforts, linking biological
studies with biochemical analysis and clinical data. Faye O'Brien brings
critical marketing skills to Paradigm at a time when we are expanding the
commercialization of our technologies in human health and seeking key
pharmaceutical partners."
Dr. Higgins, whose main expertise is in metabolism and cardiovascular
diseases, has successfully directed key pharmaceutical R&D programs for both
large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Most recently, he served as
Senior Director, Pharmacology, for Nobex Corporation, a privately held, drug
delivery company, where he successfully took a new development candidate to
the IND stage within 12 months. Prior to Nobex, Dr. Higgins was Director of
the Transcription Therapeutics SBU for Allelix Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., which
merged with NPS Pharmaceuticals in 1999. He worked as Director, Pharmacology
and Drug Development at Oncogene Science, Inc., where he directed major
screening collaborations with Marion Merell Dow and Wyeth Ayerst. From 1988
to 1993, Dr. Higgins held various positions at Hoffman-La Roche, Inc.,
including Director, Metabolic Diseases Research, and Director, Cardiovascular
and Neurobiology Research. He began his career at Pfizer Central Research in
Kent, United Kingdom, beginning as an experimental scientist and reaching the
level of Section Head, Discovery Biology.
Ms. O'Brien joins Paradigm from Gene Logic, Inc. where she served as
Senior Director, Product Management and Marketing, leading the
commercialization effort for the company's toxicogenomics and gene discovery
databases. From 1998 to 2000, she was Senior Manager, Business Planning and
Development for Centocor - Johnson & Johnson. Prior to that, Ms. O'Brien was
Manager, Strategic Marketing Information for Amgen, Inc. From 1994 to 1997,
she held various positions at Boehringer Mannheim Pharmaceuticals, including
Manager of Strategic Decision Analysis.
About Paradigm Genetics
Paradigm is a biotechnology company aiming to increase R&D productivity by
focusing its integrated suite of technologies on the product development
cycle, from target discovery to subsequent enhancement of the safety and
efficacy profiles of development candidates in agriculture and human health.
Paradigm chooses a systems biology approach to understand gene function in the
context of biological pathways, to develop assays and biomarkers for molecular
diagnostic solutions tailored to the needs of our partners. Paradigm's
proprietary Gene to Cell to System(TM) approach has three major components:
gene expression profiling, biochemical profiling (also known as metabolomics)
and data integration and coherence. For more information, visit
http://www.paradigmgenetics.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including
statements regarding the effect of executing Paradigm's strategic plan on
increasing shareholder value going forward. Such forward-looking statements
are based on management's current expectations and are subject to a number of
risks, factors and uncertainties that may cause actual results, events and
performance to differ materially from those referred to in the forward-looking
statements. These risks, factors and uncertainties include, but are not
limited to, Paradigm's early stage of development, history of net losses,
technological and product development uncertainties, reliance on research
collaborations, uncertainty of additional funding and ability to protect its
patents and proprietary rights. Certain of these and other risks are
identified in Paradigm's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2003, filed
with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company does not intend to
update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this release to
conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations,
except as may be required by law.
SOURCE Paradigm Genetics, Inc.
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Related links:
http://www.paradigmgenetics.com
CONTACT:
Melissa Matson, Director, Corporate
Communications of Paradigm Genetics, Inc., +1-919-425-3000, or
Mark Vincent, Vice President of Noonan Russo Presence Euro RSCG,
+1-212-845-4200
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