MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., July 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Aviron (Nasdaq: AVIR) today
announced that Edward J. Arcuri has been named Vice President, Manufacturing
and Raysam S. Prasad (Ray) has been named Vice President, Technical Affairs.
Dr. Arcuri is responsible for all Aviron manufacturing activities at Medeva
Pharma, Speke, England, and at Packaging Coordinators Inc., Philadelphia. Mr.
Prasad will be responsible for a new department, reporting to the CEO, which
brings together all of Aviron's activities in the areas of quality control,
quality assurance and regulatory compliance.
Dr. Arcuri joins Aviron from North American Vaccine, Inc., where he most
recently served as Vice President, Manufacturing Operations and Process
Development. In this role, he was responsible for all phases of vaccine
manufacturing, including the bulk manufacturing, filling and packaging. Dr.
Arcuri was also responsible for virus seed development, fermentation,
purification, chemistry, formulation and sterile process engineering in
addition to materials management, facilities operations and engineering.
Prior to joining NAVA, Dr. Arcuri served as Senior Director, Biological
Manufacturing at Merck and Co. He was responsible for manufacture of licensed
bulk biologicals, including vaccines for bacterial meningitis, hepatitis B,
pneumonia and measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) and varicella (chicken pox).
Prior to joining Merck, he held research management positions at SmithKline
Beecham. Dr. Arcuri earned a bachelors degree in biology from the State
University of New York at Albany in 1972, a masters degree in 1976 and a Ph.D.
in biology in 1978 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Mr. Prasad joins Aviron from Chiron Vaccines, the global vaccines business
unit of Chiron Corporation where he most recently served as a Head of
Regulatory, Quality and Drug Safety covering 30 marketed vaccines in over 70
countries. Under his direction, the company achieved international standards
and compliance to enable significant expansion of their vaccine business,
which includes three injectable influenza vaccines (sub-unit, split and
adjuvanted) and a new combination vaccine (diphtheria, tetanus and acellular
pertussis) for the European Community as well as a rabies vaccine for the USA.
These activities encompassed products manufactured at facilities in Italy
(Chiron SpA) and Germany (Chiron Behring). Earlier, Ray served as a Director
of Quality Assurance for Therapeutics and Vaccines at Chiron with
responsibility for worldwide QA, overseeing quality programs from development
through commercial-stage projects. Prior to joining Chiron, Ray had extensive
experience in quality assurance and biological manufacturing operations at
Genentech and Burroughs Wellcome Co. Mr. Prasad trained originally and
practiced as a hospital pharmacist having earned a BS in Pharmacy from Andhra
University, India.
"These new positions were created to bring additional leadership in areas
where we must be successful to make the transition to a commercial-stage
company," said J. Leighton Read, MD, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
"Both Ray and Ed have important experience in large pharma companies and each
has played a major role in the successful commercialization of new vaccines
for biotechnology companies. We welcome them to an Aviron team that has grown
significantly in size and experience in the past year."
Aviron is a biopharmaceutical company based in Mountain View, CA focused
on prevention of disease. The company's goal is to develop products which
offer cost-effective prevention of a wide range of infections that affect the
general population. The majority of Aviron's products under development are
live vaccines against viral infections. These include intranasal vaccines
under development for respiratory infections and their complications --
influenza, parainfluenza (PIV-3), and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and
injectable vaccines to prevent cytomegalovirus (CMV) and genital herpes (HSV-
2).
This press release contains forward-looking statements. Actual results
may differ materially from those suggested here. Factors that could cause
actual results to differ include, but are not limited to, failure in a
clinical trial, failure to demonstrate stability or to validate equipment or
the manufacturing process. Additional information concerning factors that
could cause such a difference is contained in Aviron's Annual Report on Form
10-K for the year ended December 31, 1998.
To receive an index and copies of recent press releases, call Aviron's
News-On-Call toll-free fax service, 800-758-5804, extension 114000.
Additional information about the company can be located at
http://www.aviron.com.
SOURCE Aviron
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http://www.aviron.com
Company News On-Call:
http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/114000.html or fax,
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CONTACT:
media, Karen Gilbert, 650-919-6578, or
investors, Fred Kurland, 650-919-6500, both of Aviron
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