FREMONT, Calif., Sept. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Protein Design Labs,
Inc. (PDL) (Nasdaq: PDLI) today announced the following senior management
changes:
-- First, Mr. Glen Sato, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
(CFO) is planning on resigning from PDL at year-end 2005 to join the
life sciences practice of a leading law firm. Effective November 2,
2005, he will no longer be an officer of the company, though he will
remain on staff as an employee until the end of year to ensure a smooth
transition. Starting November 2, Mr. George Jue, PDL's Vice President,
Finance and Chief Accounting Officer, will oversee the financial
organization of PDL and report directly to Mark McDade, PDL's Chief
Executive Officer, until a new CFO is hired. Mr. Jue previously served
as Corporate Controller at Scios, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company
affiliated with Johnson & Johnson. Prior to Scios, he served in
various financial management positions at Roche Bioscience, at
Genentech, Inc. and at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories. The
company has initiated a search for a new CFO to meet the needs of its
growing commercial enterprise.
-- Second, PDL's Senior Vice President, Technical Operations, Mr. Brett
Schmidli, will retire at the end of 2005. He has served in this role
since February 2002. Prior to joining PDL, he held manufacturing and
other positions at Eli Lilly and Genetics Institute. Mr. Schmidli will
continue to serve as a consultant during 2006 to provide additional
guidance as the company continues to bring its new antibody
manufacturing facilities operational during mid-2006.
-- Third, Dr. Richard Murray has been promoted to the position of Senior
Vice President, Chief Scientific and Technical Officer and he will now
oversee all of the company's technical operations, including
manufacturing. He was previously PDL's Senior Vice President and Chief
Scientific Officer. Dr. Murray joined PDL's senior team as part of the
company's acquisition of privately held Eos Biotechnology, where he was
a co-founder and served as Vice President, Research. Prior to Eos, he
held several positions at DNAX Institute, a division of Schering
Plough.
-- Fourth, Mr. Eric Emery is being promoted to Vice President,
Manufacturing from Vice President, Manufacturing Operations and will
also serve as the Minnesota site head. In his new role, he will report
to Dr. Murray. Mr. Emery has held several manufacturing positions at
PDL since joining in 1996, and prior to that held additional
manufacturing positions at Baxter.
"These management changes are consistent with our maturing organization,"
said Mr. McDade. "We thank Glen for his many contributions over the years in
several key areas, most importantly building a strong financial infrastructure
from which we can continue to grow. We wish him the best as he pursues a
different career path in the life sciences industry.
"We also appreciate Brett Schmidli's many accomplishments, including
overseeing the on-budget, on-time build-out of our new commercial-scale
antibody production facility in Brooklyn Park, and helping to build the
overall technical operations team from a small nucleus in Minnesota to a
significant multi-site and multi-disciplinary effort. We are pleased he will
continue to help us in the coming year and wish him well in his future
endeavors," added Mr. McDade. "At the same time, we are also pleased to
promote Dr. Richard Murray, who has successfully overseen much of the growth
and scale up of our research and process development, and Eric Emery, who will
step up to play a pivotal role in manufacturing, specifically at our Minnesota
site."
PDL is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the research, development
and commercialization of novel therapies for inflammation and autoimmune
diseases, acute cardiac conditions and cancer. PDL markets several
biopharmaceutical products in the United States through its hospital sales
force and wholly-owned subsidiary, ESP Pharma, Inc. As a leader in the
development of humanized antibodies, PDL has licensed its patents to numerous
pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, some of which are now paying
royalties on net sales of licensed products. Further information on PDL is
available at http://www.pdl.com.
Protein Design Labs and the PDL logo are registered U.S. trademarks of
Protein Design Labs, Inc.
SOURCE Protein Design Labs, Inc.
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Related links:
http://www.pdl.com
CONTACT:
James R. Goff, Senior Director, Investor
Relations, of Protein Design Labs, Inc., +1-510-574-1421 or
jgoff@pdl.com
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