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Biotech / Medical : Ligand (LGND) Breakout! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Torben Noerup Nielsen who wrote (30298)	1/16/2000 9:54:00 PM
From: Sleepman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32384

Torben: I know what you mean. My wife tells me the same thing. Dan

To: Torben Noerup Nielsen who wrote (30298)	1/17/2000 7:07:00 PM
From: celeryroot.com	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32384

SAN DIEGO--(BW HealthWire)--Jan. 17, 2000--Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (Nasdaq:LGND) announced today that Thomas H. Silberg has joined Ligand effective January 17, 2000, as Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, with overall responsibility for the Company's global commercial functions including corporate development, strategic planning, licensing & business development, marketing and sales, market research and professional services. James R. Mirto, Vice President, Marketing and Business Development, has resigned to pursue other professional opportunities. Ligand also announced today that Andres Negro-Vilar, MD, PhD, currently Ligand's Senior Vice President of Research and Chief Scientific Officer, has been promoted to Senior Vice President, Research and Development and Chief Scientific Officer, with overall operational and scientific responsibility for research, clinical development and medical research and safety. "As we work to accelerate the building of an effective commercial organization and to build upon our successes in research and development, we recognized the need to make several key organization functional changes," states David E. Robinson, Ligand's Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. "During 1999, we restructured commercial operations to transition to a more marketing-driven organization and doubled our sales force size to meet the ongoing challenge of delivering improved commercial results and bringing the company to profitablility. We are pleased to welcome Tom Silberg to our commercial organization and expect he will lead us to the next level even as we thank Jim Mirto for his contributions to our past six years. "The changes to our R&D structure will better integrate our broad internal and partnered research and development program efforts by unifying the key components of drug discovery and development under integrated functional leadership. We expect the integrated R&D functions under Dr. Negro-Vilar's leadership to accelerate the successes of the past decade (which advanced 14 NCEs to human development track and achieved three new drug approvals in 1999 alone) well into the new millennium." Mr. Silberg joins Ligand after a distinguished career with Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. Since 1994, Mr. Silberg has held the position of Vice President, Business Operations, where his responsibilities included all general management activities relating to the sales and marketing of the entire Roche product line in a 26 state geographic area. He also oversaw the launch of two major products. From 1988-1994, he was Vice President of Health Systems Management, where he was responsible for the creation, positioning and development of a new strategic business unit. During his tenure at Hoffmann-La Roche, Mr. Silberg also held senior management positions in Market Research and Sales Management. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, with degrees in marketing and advertising. Dr. Negro-Vilar joined Ligand in August 1996 and has been instrumental in nurturing the growth and effectiveness of Ligand's discovery research efforts through the advancement of proprietary compounds to the clinic and the development of key strategic research alliances with other major pharmaceutical companies. Prior to joining Ligand, Dr. Negro-Vilar had been with Wyeth-Ayerst Research since 1993 as VP of Research and Head of the Women's Health Research Institute. He also served 10 years at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health, in a dual role as Director of Clinical Programs and Chief of the Laboratory of Molecular and Integrative Neurosciences. Dr. Negro-Vilar has held numerous academic appointments including Professor of Physiology, University of Texas Medical School and Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology, University of North Carolina. He is currently a member of several corporate and national advisory boards.