Raven Biotechnologies, Inc. Appoints George F. Schreiner, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., May 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Raven biotechnologies, inc., a privately-held company focused on the development of monoclonal antibody therapeutics for cancer, announced today that it has named George F. Schreiner, M.D., Ph.D., as Chief Executive Officer and Director.

Dr. Schreiner joins Raven from Scios Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company, where he most recently served as President of Research and Development, leading discovery and development projects targeting heart and lung disease, inflammation and cancer.

"George brings 20 years of experience leading teams of scientists, doctors and managers to successfully develop and commercialize leading-edge products," said William Rohn, acting CEO and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors who will remain as Vice Chairman of Raven's Board. "His experience taking drugs from the bench to the clinic and through regulatory approval will be invaluable as Raven moves its lead product candidate RAV12 forward in the clinic and advances other promising proprietary candidates into development."

Dr. Schreiner will lead an experienced senior management team. Raven's Founder, Jennie P. Mather, Ph.D., remains as President, Director, and Chief Scientific Officer and John B. Whelan continues as Chief Operating and Financial Officer.

At Scios, Dr. Schreiner served on the committee of senior managers that reviewed and approved all drugs entering full development at Johnson & Johnson, and chaired the committee of discovery research heads of the J&J subsidiaries to coordinate key areas of collaboration and strategic development.

"With a promising product in mid-stage clinical development addressing a large market, a leading-edge discovery engine, innovative science and a unique technological approach, Raven has what it takes to be successful, and I am eager to help the company fully capitalize on its abundant assets," said Dr. Schreiner. "Raven is generating powerful new antibodies to treat cancer and greatly accelerating the ability to bring viable antibody product candidates to the clinic. Bill and Jennie have done a terrific job getting the company to this stage and I am very proud to be entrusted to take it forward from here. We will be building on the Raven technology to develop innovative, potentially transforming strategies directed toward the discovery and development of cancer therapeutics."

Dr. Schreiner joined Scios in 1997 and served in a number of key roles there, including Chief Scientific and Medical Officer, Senior Vice President of Research and Development and Vice President of Cardiorenal Research where his contributions advanced the development of therapeutics, both biologics and small molecules, targeting disease mechanisms identified by novel biochemical and genomic techniques.

Before Scios, he spent several years at CV Therapeutics, most recently as Vice President of Medical Science and Preclinical Research.

Prior to working in industry, he held faculty positions at some of the nation's leading medical academic institutions, including Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pathology at Harvard Medical School and Associate Professor of Medicine and Pathology at Washington University School of Medicine.

Dr. Schreiner has published extensively in the area of cardiovascular, renal disease inflammation and oncology.

He received his B.A., and Ph.D. and M.D. degrees from Harvard University and Harvard Medical School, respectively.

About Raven

Raven biotechnologies, inc.(www.ravenbio.com) is a privately held biotechnology company focused on the development of monoclonal antibody therapeutics for treating cancer. Raven's lead product candidate, RAV12, targets adenocarcinomas and is in clinical development for the treatment of gastrointestinal and other cancers. Raven's discovery process simultaneously identifies cell-surface drug targets and the antibody therapeutics to regulate them. Our focus on biological function allows us to rapidly identify novel target antigens and therapeutic candidates in their native configuration in the intact cell membrane. Our integrated approach is based on proprietary methods for optimizing the production of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) targeting cell-surface proteins, including the use of human tissue-specific progenitor and tumor stem cell lines developed at Raven.

To date Raven has identified multiple candidate therapeutic MAbs for many cancer indications including lung, colon, pancreatic, prostate, breast, brain, and ovarian cancer.

Source: Raven biotechnologies, inc.

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