WOBURN, Mass. and RAMAT GAN, Israel, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Predix
Pharmaceuticals Inc., a drug discovery and development company, announced
today the appointment of Stephen Donahue, MD as Vice President Clinical and
Regulatory Affairs. Dr. Donahue brings ten years of experience in
pharmaceutical development to this role. He will have the dual responsibility
of leading the clinical function where he will direct, design and monitor all
of the company's clinical research efforts and the regulatory function where
he will manage drug submissions to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(FDA), as well as other regulatory authorities.
"I am extremely pleased that Steve will be joining the management team at
Predix at such an exciting time in our clinical development program," said
Michael Kauffman, MD, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer of Predix.
"Steve's strong clinical and pharmacology skills, and leadership capabilities
will be particularly important as we continue to transition into a fully
integrated product development company with one investigational drug, PRX-
00023 -- intended for the treatment of a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders
-- moving into Phase II clinical trials, and the goal to expand our clinical
pipeline with two additional Investigational New Drugs within the next six
months." Predix expects its second IND to be filed prior to year's end. All
of the Company's drug candidates were discovered using proprietary
computational GPCR modeling and lead optimization technologies.
Prior to joining Predix, Steve most recently served as the medical
director overseeing clinical research in the area of atherosclerosis and
metabolism at Merck where he played a key role in securing regulatory approval
of Vytorin(R) (ezetimibe/simvastatin). Previously, he held several senior
clinical positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb in the areas of clinical
pharmacology, metabolism and cardiovascular diseases. Steve is a graduate of
Georgetown University Medical School and Brown University. He completed his
residency in internal medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center and is
Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology.
"Predix Pharmaceuticals has a great business plan, a cutting-edge
technology platform and a robust pipeline. I welcome the opportunity to be
part of the team that is integrating these key strengths for the purpose of
creating novel products to treat unmet medical needs," said Dr. Donahue. "I
look forward to making a substantial contribution to the Company and to
patients who may benefit from the products that we bring to the market."
About Predix
Predix is a drug development company integrating computational and
medicinal chemistry to rapidly and efficiently create new drugs targeted to
GPCRs and ion channels. Leveraging its proprietary technology, Predix has
created a diverse clinical and pre-clinical stage drug development pipeline
focused on GPCR and ion channel drug targets. The Company's current pipeline
includes the 5HT1A program which has completed Phase I clinical trials, the
5HT4 agonist program near IND filing stage, the 5HT2B pulmonary hypertension
program in preclinical toxicology, and four additional programs in lead
discovery and lead optimization. Predix expects to retain a minority of its
clinical programs in house through Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical trials, while
generating early upfront and milestone revenues, as well as royalties from
partnering some of its novel compounds following Phase I safety studies.
In addition to the 5HT1A program, Predix has used its proprietary in
silico GPCR models and computational platform for optimizing antagonists of
serotonin 5HT2B for pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary fibrosis and
serotonin 5HT4 agonists for Alzheimer's disease and other cognitive disorders.
The company is also conducting early work on peptide-based GPCRs and ion
channel drug candidates.
Predix was incorporated in December, 2000, and initiated its medicinal
chemistry and development activities, with its headquarters, in Woburn,
Massachusetts, in September, 2002. The Company was founded in Ramat Gan,
Israel, and maintains its computational chemistry division there.
Contact:
Christine Hayden
(781) 376-0821 Ext. 1010
http://www.predixpharm.com
SOURCE Predix Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
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Related links:
http://www.predixpharm.com
CONTACT:
Christine Hayden of Predix, +1-781-376-0821
ext. 1010
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