Healthcare Industry News: Cerecor
News Release - May 24, 2011
Cerecor, Incorporated Initiates Operations
Cerecor Appoints Management Team and Board of Directors; Cerecor Announces Plans for a $30 Million Series ABALTIMORE, MD--(Healthcare Sales & Marketing Network) - Cerecor Inc ("Cerecor," or "the Company") today announced that it has initiated operations as a Baltimore based, Delaware corporation and has appointed a Management Team and Board of Directors. Cerecor is a pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of prescription pharmaceuticals whose primary activity is in the human brain. The Company is focused on translational medicine -- the accelerated transfer of technology from the academic laboratory to early human trials, with the goal of rapid commercialization of proprietary technology platforms discovered at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine ("JHSOM"), Johns Hopkins Brain Science Institute ("BSi") and the Lieber Institute. Cerecor's immediate product opportunities include potential therapies for cough and schizophrenia. Company co-founders include Mr Isaac Blech and Drs Solomon Snyder, Barbara Slusher and Blake Paterson. Over the past three decades, Mr Blech has established some of the leading biotechnology companies in the world, including Celgene Corporation and ICOS Corporation. Dr Snyder is a distinguished service Professor of Neuroscience, Pharmacology and Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, is a past recipient of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Biomedical Research (1978) and the National Medal of Science (2005), and was scientific co-founder of Nova Pharmaceuticals and Guilford Pharma. Dr Slusher is Director of the BSi NeuroTranslational Program and has had an accomplished 18-year drug discovery career at both large and small companies including ICI Pharmaceuticals, Astra-Zeneca, Guilford Pharmaceuticals, MGI Pharma, and the Eisai Research Institute. Dr Paterson is a neuroanesthesiologist who practices at JHSOM and an entrepreneur who has previously founded Alba Therapeutics, Fells Laboratories and Chesapeake BioDiscovery. He is the inventor of more than 10 pharmaceutical patents and has held senior commercial and drug development positions at Eli Lilly, Pfizer and Warner Lambert.
In addition to Mr Blech and Dr Paterson, the Cerecor Board of Directors includes Mr John Catsimatidis, Dr Robert Nowinski and Mr Cary Sucoff, and is chaired by Dr Eugene Bauer. Dr Bauer is Executive Chairman of the Board of directors of Medgenics, Inc., Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vyteris, Inc. and a board member of three privately held companies. He is Professor (Emeritus) in the School of Medicine at Stanford University and was previously Vice President for the Medical Affairs (1997-2001) and Dean of the School of Medicine (1995-2001). John Catsimatidis is the Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Red Apple Group, an 8,000 employee retail and service conglomerate in the New York area with annual sales of over $4.4 billion. Robert Nowinski has succesfully established numerous biotechnology companies including Genetic Systems Corporation, Icos Corporation, PathoGenesis Corporation and VaxGen, Inc. Cary Sucoff has over 28 years of securities industry experience and operates Equity Source Partners, a boutique investment bank. Mr Sucoff provides investment banking and consulting services to public and private companies and institutional investors and has played a role in securing financing for biotech companies such as Amgen, Centecor, Genzyme, Genentech, Icos, PathoGenesis, Vaxgen, Biotime, Contrafect and many others. The Cerecor management team includes Dr Paterson as CEO, Dr Sharon Rowland as VP Regulatory Affairs and Quality and Dr Mark Ginski as VP CMC and Product Development. Drs Ginski and Rowland have overseen the development and commercialization of multiple drug products over the past 15 years, lastly at Alba Therapeutics. This experience in the development of pharmaceutical products, combined with the extraordinary discovery capabilities of its academic partners, provide the Company with the ability to deliver substantial future growth and earnings in emerging pharmaceutical sectors.
Source: Cerecor
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