Healthcare Industry News: human growth hormone
News Release - December 19, 2006
Altus Pharmaceuticals Appoints Bruce A. Leicher General Counsel
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(HSMN NewsFeed)--Altus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ALTU ), a biopharmaceutical company focused on oral and injectable protein therapeutics for patients with gastrointestinal and metabolic disorders, today announced that Bruce A. Leicher, J.D., joined the Company to serve as Sr. Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary. In this role, Mr. Leicher will provide legal advice to the Company on matters such as corporate governance and compliance, regulatory matters, business development, intellectual property, and general corporate matters. He has over 15 years' experience in providing counsel in the life sciences industry."We believe Bruce's legal expertise and broad experience within the life sciences space will be valuable to us as we continue to advance our late-stage candidates, ALTU-135, an oral enzyme replacement therapy for pancreatic insufficiency, and ALTU-238, our once-per-week formulation of human growth hormone, toward regulatory filings and commercialization," commented Sheldon Berkle, President and CEO of Altus.
Mr. Leicher joins Altus from Antigenics, Inc., where he served as Vice President, General Counsel, Secretary, and as Compliance Officer. In this capacity, he was responsible for advising the board and management on corporate governance, intellectual property, and corporate finance matters, and representing the Company in partnering negotiations, licensing transactions, regulatory strategy and compliance, and in litigation.
Prior to his tenure at Antigenics, Mr. Leicher was Vice President, Chief Pharmaceutical Counsel, and Compliance Officer at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where he was recruited to build a commercial legal group for the Company's first product launch. There he provided legal advice involving product development and registration, partnering transactions, FDA clearance of promotional materials, pricing strategy, sales and marketing compliance, and the establishment of safety surveillance, medical affairs, and product distribution functions. Previously in his career, Mr. Leicher also held the positions of Co-Chair of the Life Sciences Practice Group at Hill & Barlow; Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary at Curis, Inc. and Ontogeny, Inc.; and Vice President - Law at Genetics Institute, Inc., a subsidiary of American Home Products Corporation. Mr. Leicher received his J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center and holds a B.A. from the University of Rochester.
About Altus Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Altus Pharmaceuticals, headquartered in Cambridge, MA, is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of oral and injectable protein therapeutics for patients with gastrointestinal and metabolic disorders. The Company's website is http://www.altus.com.
Certain statements in this news release concerning Altus' business are considered "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include, but are not limited to, providing legal and strategic advice, involving product development and corporate governance, advancing and defending our intellectual property portfolio. Any or all of the forward-looking statements in this press release may turn out to be wrong. They can be affected by inaccurate assumptions Altus might make or by known or unknown risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to uncertainties as to the future success of ongoing and planned clinical trials; and the unproven safety and efficacy of products under development. Consequently, no forward-looking statement can be guaranteed, and actual results may vary materially. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from those in the forward-looking statements is contained in Altus' reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2005. However, Altus undertakes no obligation to publicly update forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events or otherwise.
Source: Altus Pharmaceuticals
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