CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Transkaryotic
Therapies, Inc. (Nasdaq: TKTX) today announced that Dr. Lydia Villa-Komaroff,
Chief Operating Officer of Whitehead Institute, and Dr. Dennis Langer, Senior
Vice President, Project and Portfolio Management at GlaxoSmithKline, have been
elected to the TKT Board of Directors. TKT also announced today that William
R. Miller and James E. Thomas have stepped down from the Board of Directors.
"I am confident that Doctors Villa-Komaroff and Langer will give TKT
invaluable guidance and strategic vision for the future. We are also
grateful for the years of outstanding service Bill and James gave us," said
Michael J. Astrue, President and Chief Executive Officer of TKT.
Lydia Villa-Komaroff, Ph.D. currently serves as Vice President for
Research and Chief Operating Officer at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical
Research. Prior to joining Whitehead Institute in 2003, she was Vice President
for Research at Northwestern University where she was responsible for policy
formation, strategy design and operational oversight of the research
infrastructure. Dr. Villa-Komaroff was an Associate Professor of Neurology
at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital, and Associate Director of
the Division of Neuroscience at Children's Hospital in Boston. Early in her
career, she was a key member of the team that demonstrated that bacterial
cells could produce insulin using genetic engineering techniques. She received
her doctorate in cell biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and a B.A. in biology from Goucher College.
Dennis H. Langer, M.D., J.D. is an industry veteran with broad experience
in business development, clinical research, marketing and healthcare services,
research and development and strategic planning. He is currently Senior Vice
President, Project and Portfolio Management of Research and Development at
GlaxoSmithKline, where he has global responsibility for managing all
therapeutic research and development projects. Before the 2000 merger of
Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham, Dr. Langer held several high-level
positions at SmithKline Beecham including Senior Vice President, Product
Development Strategy, Research & Development, Pharmaceuticals. He has also
served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Neose Technologies, Inc.
and held positions at G.D. Searle & Co., Abbott Laboratories, and Eli Lilly &
Co. Dr. Langer was also Chief Resident in psychiatry at Yale University
School of Medicine, a clinical associate in the psychiatry branch of the
National Institutes of Health and held clinical fellows in psychiatry at
Harvard Medical School and George Washington University School of Medicine.
He received a J.D. from Harvard Law School, an M.D. from Georgetown University
School of Medicine, and a B.A. in Biology from Columbia University.
About TKT
TKT is a biopharmaceutical company developing therapeutics for the
treatment of rare genetic diseases caused by protein deficiencies. The company
currently markets one product, Replagal(TM) (agalsidase alfa) for the
treatment of Fabry disease in the European Union and certain other countries.
TKT is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts and has a majority-owned
subsidiary in Sweden, TKT Europe-5S AB, which is responsible for European
sales and marketing activities of Replagal. Additional information on TKT is
available on the company's website at http://www.tktx.com.
This press release contains forward-looking information regarding TKT's
Board of Directors, as well as statements containing the words "believes,"
"anticipates," "plans," "expects," "will," and similar expressions. There are
a number of important factors that could cause the company's actual results to
differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements,
including whether the members of TKT's Board of Directors will serve as long
as expected, and other factors set forth under the caption "Certain Factors
That May Affect Future Results" in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-Q
for the quarter ended September 30, 2003, which is on file with the Securities
and Exchange Commission and are incorporated herein by reference. The company
does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.
Replagal(TM) is a trademark of Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc.
Contact:
Justine E. Koenigsberg
Director, Corporate Communications
(617) 349-0271
SOURCE Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc.
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Related links:
http://www.tktx.com
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CONTACT:
Justine E. Koenigsberg, Director, Corporate
Communications of Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc., +1-617-349-0271
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