Friday March 23, 6:00 am Eastern Time
Press Release
SOURCE: InterMune Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Jay P. Shepard to Join InterMune Board of Directors
Sales and Marketing Management Team Also Expanded
BURLINGAME, Calif., March 23 /PRNewswire/ -- InterMune (Nasdaq: ITMN - news) announced today that its Board of Directors has nominated Jay P. Shepard to stand for election to the Board of Directors at InterMune's annual stockholders' meeting on May 8, 2001. Mr. Shepard is Vice President of the Oncology Business Unit at ALZA Corporation and has over 20 years of sales and marketing experience in the pharmaceutical industry.
``We are extremely pleased to have Jay join our Board,'' said W. Scott Harkonen, M.D., Chairman, President and CEO of InterMune. ``Jay's background in leading a rapidly growing sales organization will be invaluable as we accelerate our sales, marketing and medical information efforts. In just the next three months, we will expand our specialists in the field from 38 to 60, relaunch Amphotec®, and begin our development and commercialization efforts for ACTIMMUNE® for the treatment of ovarian cancer. We are looking forward to working with Jay in all of these areas.''
Mr. Shepard joined ALZA in 1994 as Director of Marketing and became Vice President of Sales in 1998. While he was Vice President of Sales, he oversaw an organization that grew from 40 people to a team of over 500. In 1999, Mr. Shepard was appointed Vice President of the Oncology Business Unit, which has become a highly profitable unit of ALZA's business.
Mr. Shepard will replace John Higgins on InterMune's Board of Directors. Mr. Higgins, Chief Financial Officer of Connetics Corporation, has served on InterMune's Board since April 1999. ``John, as well as many others at Connetics, was instrumental in the success of our spin-out from Connetics in 1999 and has continued to make valuable contributions to the successful growth of InterMune. We greatly appreciate John's contributions,'' stated Dr. Harkonen.
Two further additions to InterMune's sales and marketing team include Michael Markels and Jim Shaffer. Mr. Markels joins InterMune as Senior Director, Infectious Diseases and Oncology, reporting to David Cory, Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Mr. Markels will be responsible for InterMune's infectious disease and oncology sales and marketing strategy for both ACTIMMUNE® and Amphotec®. Mr. Markels has over 12 years of pharmaceutical sales and marketing experience, most recently as Director, Respiratory Global Commercial Development at Glaxo Wellcome Inc. where he was responsible for strategic planning for Flixotide®/Flovent® and the asthma product portfolio.
Mr. Shaffer, also reporting to David Cory, recently joined as Director, National Accounts and will manage reimbursement, contracting and wholesaler relationships for all of InterMune's marketed products. Mr. Shaffer brings ten years of sales and medical marketing experience to InterMune from Merck & Co., Inc. as well as Glaxo Wellcome where he most recently served as a District Manager in the Oncology and HIV Division.
InterMune is a biotechnology company dedicated to the development and commercialization of innovative products for the treatment of serious pulmonary and infectious diseases and cancer. InterMune currently markets ACTIMMUNE® (Interferon gamma-1b) Injection in the United States for the treatment of chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) and severe, malignant osteopetrosis and is in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB). The company also markets Amphotec®, an FDA-approved lipid-complexed form of amphotericin B for the treatment of invasive aspergillosis, a life-threatening fungal infection. For more information about InterMune and ACTIMMUNE®, please visit InterMune's web sites at www.intermune.com and www.actimmune.com, or send e-mail to ir@intermune.com. |
