FREMONT, Calif., May 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Protein Design Labs, Inc. (PDL; the "Company") (Nasdaq: PDLI - news) today announced that Laurence Jay Korn, Ph.D., a co-founder of PDL and its Chief Executive Officer since 1987, has relinquished his responsibilities as Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Korn will continue to serve as Chairman of the Board and will continue to be active in the areas of investor relations and business development.
PDL said that its Board of Directors has elected Douglas O. Ebersole, Senior Vice President, Legal and Licensing, PDL, to serve as Chief Executive Officer on an interim basis. Mr. Ebersole is expected to serve in that capacity until the Company completes its search for a chief executive officer. A committee of PDL directors, chaired by Cary L. Queen, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, PDL, will direct the search.
Mr. Ebersole said, "We deeply appreciate Dr. Korn's many contributions and will continue to benefit from his insights as Chairman. Under his leadership, PDL has built a product development pipeline of humanized antibodies that is among the broadest in the biopharmaceutical industry. Our future is supported by a substantial revenue stream from royalties on marketed products, and from patent rights and humanization agreements. We are preparing for the manufacture of humanized monoclonal antibodies on a commercial scale. As PDL works towards commercialization of its product candidates, the Board believes that now is an appropriate time to seek new leadership that can expand and enhance PDL's efforts to achieve its vision. I look forward to helping PDL manage this important transition and appreciate the Board's confidence as we work to further build the PDL management team."
Since joining PDL in 1992, Mr. Ebersole has served in various senior management positions with overall responsibility for a number of functional areas including legal, business development, human resources, manufacturing and quality. He was elected Senior Vice President, Legal and Licensing in 1999 and has served as Corporate Secretary since 1992. In his nearly 10 years at PDL, Mr. Ebersole has played a key role in establishing many of the Company's partnerships and licensing relationships.
PDL will hold a conference call to discuss the changes to its management team at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time on May 2. Access to the conference call will be available by dialing (212) 346-7456; enter conference ID number 20577430.
A live webcast of the conference call will be available through the PDL website: www.pdl.com. Please connect to this website at least 15 minutes prior to the conference call to ensure adequate time for any software download that may be needed to hear the webcast. A replay of the webcast will be available at www.pdl.com from approximately one hour after the completion of the conference call through 5:00 p.m. Eastern time on May 8, 2002. A replay of the conference call will also be available by telephone from approximately 10:30 a.m. Eastern time on May 2 through 7:30 a.m. Eastern time on May 4, 2002. To access the replay, dial 800-633-8284 from inside the United States and 858-812-6440 from outside the United States; enter conference ID number 20577430....
FREMONT, Calif., May 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Protein Design Labs, Inc. (Nasdaq: PDLI - news; PDL; the "Company") today announced that Daniel J. Levitt, M.D., Ph.D., President, Research and Development, PDL, has resigned to pursue other interests, effective May 3. The Company said that responsibility for its clinical and regulatory affairs would be assigned on an interim basis to Cary L. Queen, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, PDL.
Douglas O. Ebersole, interim Chief Executive Officer, PDL, said, "We thank Dan for his many contributions and dedicated service to PDL. We wish him much success in his future endeavors."
The foregoing contains forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties and PDL's actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause such differences are discussed in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2001, as amended, and in other filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission. |
