Healthcare Industry News: diabetic foot ulcer
News Release - May 8, 2006
Athenagen Announces the Appointment of John Donovan as Chief Financial Officer
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., May 8 (HSMN NewsFeed) -- Athenagen, Inc., a privately held biopharmaceutical company, announced today the appointment of John Donovan as the company's first full-time Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Donovan has more than a decade of biotechnology finance experience both as an investment banker and as a member of senior management within InterMune, most recently as Vice President, Strategic Planning & Analysis."It is with great pleasure that we welcome John to Athenagen," commented Scott Harkonen, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer. "His leadership ability and proven track record, both on Wall Street and in a corporate setting, will be great assets to Athenagen as we ramp up operations."
At InterMune, Mr. Donovan had a number of responsibilities during his tenure, initially as head of investor relations and ultimately as vice president, responsible for business analysis, strategy and long-term financial planning. Previously, Mr. Donovan was Vice President, Biotechnology Investment Banking at Banc of America Securities LLC, where he was member of a biotechnology investment banking team responsible for execution of twelve financings raising over $5 billion in capital. He began his career in investment banking at Vector Securities International (subsequently Prudential Vector Healthcare) where he was involved in more than a dozen merger transactions and nearly two dozen public and private capital raising transactions.
Mr. Donovan will be responsible for scaling the company's finance organization, raising additional capital, and managing the company's information technology, facilities and human resources functions.
"We are extremely grateful to Deborah Schueren for her invaluable contributions to Athenagen during her tenure as part-time CFO through our start-up phase," said Dr. Harkonen. "We are excited to retain her as a member of our senior leadership team where she will continue to lead the company's business development efforts."
About Athenagen
Athenagen, Inc., located in South San Francisco, is engaged in the development of small-molecule drugs designed to either inhibit or enhance angiogenesis, based on the discovery of a new endothelial cell angiogenesis pathway, known as the nicotinic acetylcholine (nACh) receptor pathway. Athenagen's lead products are being developed as oral and topical compounds to treat diseases caused by enhanced angiogenesis, such as cancer and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), as well as topical formulations to treat diseases caused by impaired angiogenesis, such as non-healing wounds. Athenagen plans to introduce two drug candidates into the clinic in 2006: ATG002, a topical pro-angiogenesis compound for diabetic foot ulcers; and ATG003, a topical (eye drop) anti-angiogenesis compound for neovascular AMD. In addition, Athenagen expects to enter Phase II clinical trials with a third program, GTS-21, which is also based on the nACh receptor pathway, for Alzheimer's disease in early 2007. For more information: www.athenagen.com.
Source: Athenagen
Issuer of this News Release is solely responsible for its
content.
Please address inquiries directly to the issuing company.
