Thursday May 30, 12:47 pm Eastern Time
Press Release
SOURCE: InterMune, Inc.
InterMune Appoints Renowned Researchers to Lead Company's Hepatitis Research And Development Programs
BRISBANE, Calif., May 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- InterMune, Inc. (Nasdaq: ITMN - News) announced today that it has appointed Lawrence Blatt, Ph.D., (40), and Brian Murphy, M.D., 42, to the newly created positions of Vice President of Biopharmacology Research, and Director, Clinical Research, Hepatitis, respectively, to enhance and expand the company's multiple commercial and development programs in hepatitis.
Dr. Blatt will oversee InterMune's Biopharmacology Research Group and will help implement the company's applied research strategy targeted toward new approaches to antiviral and oncological therapy. He will report directly to W. Scott Harkonen, M.D., President and CEO of InterMune. Dr. Murphy will direct InterMune's clinical research efforts focused primarily on hepatitis. InterMune markets Infergen®, (Interferon alfacon-1), also known as consensus interferon, as a treatment for chronic hepatitis C infections. InterMune is developing both Actimmune® and pirfenidone as potential treatments for liver fibrosis, a life-threatening complication of hepatitis infection.
"Based on their collective track records of achievement in this increasingly important and expanding field of medicine, Drs. Blatt and Murphy will play an integral role in helping us fully realize the potential blockbuster opportunity we have in developing new treatments for hepatitis C infections," said Dr. Harkonen. "Together, they will lead our efforts to devise advanced treatment strategies against hepatitis C, which remains a major unmet medical need, focused initially on expediting development of pegylated Infergen (PEG-Infergen)."
Dr. Blatt is a distinguished member of the hepatology field credited with leading the development of consensus interferon while he was at Amgen. He brings more than 20 years of biopharmaceutical industry experience and a track record of success in designing and implementing research and clinical development programs for Amgen and Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining InterMune, Dr. Blatt served as Vice President, Research at Ribozyme, a company focused on developing innovative treatments for hepatitis C and cancer. Before that, he served as the Vice President of Product Development at National Genetics Institute (NGI) where he led the development of innovative diagnostic assays for virology and oncology. Prior to his tenure at NGI, Dr. Blatt spent more than a decade at Amgen, where he served in a variety of research positions, most recently as Project Director of Amgen's International Consensus Interferon Team.
Dr. Blatt has been elected as a member of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Interferon and Cytokine Research and as a reviewer for the journals Hepatology and The Journal of Infectious Diseases. He also serves on the International Society of Interferon and Cytokine Research/World Health Organization interferon standards committee. Dr. Blatt has coauthored over 50 peer-reviewed publications in the fields of interferon biology, virology, hepatology and oncology and is the co-inventor for several issued patents including three relating to Infergen. In addition, he currently is an Adjunct Professor of Research at the Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, Calif. and an Adjunct Professor at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena.
He earned his B.S. in Microbiology from Indiana University, a Master's in Business Administration at the California State University, Northridge and a Doctorate in Public Health Administration at the University of La Verne, La Verne, Calif.
Dr. Murphy, whose involvement with the clinical development of pegylated interferon (Pegasys) at Roche Pharmaceuticals uniquely qualifies him to champion InterMune's PEG-Infergen medical program, joins InterMune from Roche, where he served as U.S. Medical Director for Interferons. Previously, he was Director of Clinical Strategies for the St. Vincent's Catholic Healthcare Network of New York and a practicing physician with a research focus on cytokines. Dr. Murphy is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha National Honor Medical Society, has held academic appointments at the Harvard Medical School and School of Public Health and lectures at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business.
He earned his M.D. and M.S. in Pharmacology from New York Medical College and served his residency and chief residency in internal medicine at Tufts-New England Medical Center and Boston University. He completed joint fellowships at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital with a dual focus in clinical epidemiology and medicine. He received his MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health and his MBA from Columbia University. Dr. Murphy continues to serve as a reviewer for a number of publications, including Annals of Internal Medicine and The New England Journal of Medicine. |
