ChemoCentryx Appoints Juan Jaen, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Drug Discovery
Thursday January 4, 3:04 pm ET
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ChemoCentryx, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing orally-administered therapeutics that target the chemokine system, today announced the appointment of Juan Jaen, Ph.D., to the position of Senior Vice President, Drug Discovery.
Dr. Jaen brings more than 20 years of expertise in drug discovery, chemistry and preclinical development across a number of therapeutic areas to ChemoCentryx. Dr. Jaen will be responsible for all of ChemoCentryx's drug discovery efforts, ranging from early research through preclinical development. He will report directly to Thomas J. Schall, Ph.D., ChemoCentryx's President and Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Jaen's appointment coincides with the retirement of J.J. Kim Wright, Ph.D., who has served as ChemoCentryx's Senior Vice President, Medicinal Chemistry and Preclinical Development, since 2001. Dr. Wright will continue to consult to the company.
"It has been an honor and a privilege to have had the opportunity to work with someone of Kim's talent, and we very much appreciate his efforts in building a top-notch medicinal chemistry program at ChemoCentryx during his six-year tenure. While he will be universally missed by the team, we are pleased to welcome Juan to ChemoCentryx. Juan's track record of efficiently moving quality candidates into the clinic across a wide range of therapeutic areas, including inflammatory diseases and oncology, complements our own approach to drug discovery and development," said Dr. Schall. "We look forward to his valued contributions as we prepare to advance a number of promising preclinical candidates into the clinic and continue to leverage our internal drug discovery expertise to further fuel our pipeline."
Dr. Jaen joins ChemoCentryx after ten years at Tularik and then Amgen (following Tularik's acquisition by Amgen in 2004), most recently serving as Vice President of Chemistry. During his tenure there, Dr. Jaen was instrumental in building a highly efficient drug discovery organization that delivered eight small molecule candidates into clinical development. In addition to his leadership role in shaping Tularik's research portfolio, Dr. Jaen was responsible for various aspects of the company's preclinical and clinical development projects and led a number of Tularik's multiple corporate research collaborations. Prior to Tularik, Dr. Jaen spent 13 years at Parke-Davis/Warner-Lambert, most recently Chemistry Director, with responsibility for the neurodegenerative disease research area. Dr. Jaen holds a Ph.D. degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Michigan. He is an author on more than 60 scientific publications and is an inventor on 39 issued U.S. patents.
About ChemoCentryx
ChemoCentryx, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing orally-administered therapeutics that target the chemokine and chemoattractant systems in order to treat autoimmune diseases, inflammatory disorders and cancer. The chemokine system is a complex network of chemokine molecules, or ligands, and receptors that regulates inflammation. Based on their proprietary drug discovery and drug development platform, ChemoCentryx has internally generated several clinical and preclinical stage programs, each targeting distinct chemokine and chemoattractant receptors with different small molecule compounds. ChemoCentryx's lead compound, Traficet-EN®, a specific CCR9 antagonist, is currently in a multinational clinical trial, called PROTECT-1, in patients with moderate-to-severe Crohn's disease. In August 2006, ChemoCentryx and GlaxoSmithKline entered into a worldwide strategic alliance to discover, develop and commercialize up to six novel medicines targeting four chemokine and chemoattractant receptors for a variety of inflammatory disorders. ChemoCentryx is privately held. For more information, please refer to www.chemocentryx.com. |
