Thursday March 7, 8:02 am Eastern Time
Press Release
SOURCE: Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Regeneron Appoints Marketing and Sales Executive and Names Two Other Executives to Strengthen Preclinical and Clinical Development Groups
Senior Management Additions to Promote Product Development
TARRYTOWN, N.Y.--(BW HealthWire)--March 7, 2002-- Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: REGN - news) today announced three appointments that support the Company's efforts to accelerate the development of new product candidates and bring innovative therapeutic products to market.
Joining the Company are Suzanne Blaug as Vice President of Marketing and Sales; Eric Furfine, Ph.D., as Vice President of Preclinical Development; and Barbara Tardiff, M.D., as Vice President of Clinical Informatics. Ms. Blaug and Dr. Tardiff report to Leonard S. Schleifer, M.D., Ph.D., Regeneron's President and Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Furfine reports to Neil Stahl, Ph.D., Senior Vice President of Preclinical Development and Biomolecular Science.
``Regeneron has an excellent clinical pipeline,'' noted Dr. Schleifer. ``AXOKINE® is in a fully enrolled Phase III trial for the treatment of obesity. We recently reported positive preliminary results from our Phase I trial of the IL1 Trap in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis. Late last year, we initiated a Phase I trial for our potent angiogenesis inhibitor, the VEGF Trap, in patients with solid tumor malignancies and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Within the next six months, we expect to begin a clinical study of our IL4/13 Trap for asthma and allergies.''
Dr. Schleifer continued, ``These three executives add skills that we need to fulfill our promise of developing and commercializing important new medicines that can have a significant impact on serious human diseases. Suzanne has broad experience in bringing new products to market and in building and managing the teams required to make those products successful. Barbara's rare combination of expertise in data management technologies plus medical science will strengthen our clinical development team. Eric's capabilities in scientific research and the evaluation and development of therapeutic candidates will help our preclinical group accelerate the analysis of candidate molecules. With these appointments, we significantly strengthen our ability to take product candidates from the lab bench through clinical trials and beyond.''
Ms. Blaug, who joins Regeneron from Bristol-Myers Squibb, brings more than 15 years of pharmaceutical industry experience. She has expertise in developing and implementing global strategies for commercialization of major pharmaceutical products, as well as managing regional marketing and sales teams in New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Most recently, she was Vice President and Brand Champion for the Worldwide Medicines Group within Bristol-Myers Squibb. A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Ms. Blaug received an M.B.A., Marketing and Finance from the Kellogg Graduate School of Business at Northwestern University and attended the General Management Program at the Centre European d'Education Permanente (CEDEP) in Fontainebleau, France.
Dr. Furfine joins Regeneron from GlaxoSmithKline, where he led the department of Biochemical and Analytical Pharmacology. In this role, he guided a multi-disciplinary group that helped accelerate the movement of product candidates from research into development programs. Dr. Furfine was responsible for the pharmacological evaluation of preclinical candidates and was deputy project leader for the next-generation HIV protease inhibitor program. He was also an inventor and the original project leader for fosamprenavir, an HIV protease inhibitor in late stage Phase III clinical trials for GlaxoSmithKline. A high honors graduate in Chemistry at Washington University in St. Louis, he received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Brandeis University. Dr. Furfine also conducted post-doctoral research at the University of California, San Francisco.
Dr. Tardiff brings to Regeneron 8 years of experience in pharmaceutical development and 14 years of experience in medical practice and teaching. Most recently she was Vice President of Biomedical Informatics at iBiomatics LLC, a SAS Company, and Assistant Consulting Professor of Anesthesiology at Duke University. Dr. Tardiff has participated in a broad range of clinical research activities, including protocol design, project leadership and administration, data management and information systems, and the presentation of clinical study findings. After graduating from Oregon State University with a degree in Biochemistry and Biophysics, Dr. Tardiff received an M.D. and M.S./M.Phil. in Biology (Molecular Genetics) from Yale University, did graduate work in Applied Information Management at the University of Oregon, and received an M.B.A. from Duke University Fuqua School of Business. She completed a clinical research fellowship at the Duke Clinical Research Institute. Dr. Tardiff is currently a member of the Duke Clinical Research Institute faculty and an Assistant Consulting Professor at Duke University. |
