Transport Pharmaceuticals Hires Vice President Of Quality Systems And Operational Excellence
FRAMINGHAM, Mass., Oct. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Transport Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Transport), a leader in drug/medical devices for the topical treatment of dermatological conditions, announced today that Navneet "Tony" Sharma has been named as Vice President of Quality Systems and Operational Excellence.
Mr. Sharma has nearly twenty years of medical device and pharmaceutical experience and is a Certified Master Black Belt (DFDD), a certified Six Sigma Black Belt (CSSBB) and a Certified Quality Engineer (CQE) by the American Society for Quality. As Transport's Vice President of Quality Systems and Operational Excellence, Mr. Sharma is responsible for providing leadership and quality assurance in Transport's engineering, chemistry, biology, drug development and manufacturing programs. He will work closely with senior management to identify, share and deploy best practices throughout the entire organization.
Dennis Goldberg, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer commented, "Tony is a key hire and will play an instrumental role in all the different aspects of Transports' drug/device convergence products. We want to ingrain the concept of 'Operational Excellence' into all of Transport's activities, and Tony will be integral in creating the foundation of quality in everything we do. Further, since Transport outsources all of our manufacturing and much of our clinical activities, it is essential to integrate the quality systems of our vendors with Transport's and to help our vendors meet our rigorous standards, when necessary. Both Transport, our contractors and collaborators will benefit from his knowledge and leadership."
Prior to joining Transport, Mr. Sharma held leadership positions at several leading companies, including Operational Excellence Manager at Tyco Healthcare, Director of Pre-Production Quality Assurance at Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics (a Johnson & Johnson Company) and Quality Engineering Manager at Convatec (a Bristol-Myers Squibb Company).
Transport also announced today that Shawn P. Davis, Ph.D., has joined the company as Associate Director of Engineering. Dr. Davis is an authority in the emerging field of microneedle drug delivery and has published on this topic in leading journals, including IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, Journal of Biomechanics and Pharmaceutical Research. Prior to joining Transport, Dr. Davis was a Research & Development Engineer at Milliken & Co., where he was involved in the development and commercialization of Electrotextiles and conductive polymers. He has also held positions at Biovalve Technologies, Inc. and Redeon, Inc.
About Transport's Iontophoresis Delivery Platform
Transport's drug/delivery platform is based on the combination of iontophoresis, a technology employing a low-voltage electrical charge to locally deliver larger amounts of medications through the skin, and proprietary drug formulations optimized for electrokinetic delivery. The Company has developed a small, wireless microprocessor-controlled drug delivery device and pre-filled drug reservoir cartridges that will allow patients to self-administer topical drugs for a variety of indications. The system consists of a reusable control unit and disposable, single-use medicated cartridges. The pre-filled cartridges contain a single unit dose of drug.
About Transport's Herpes Labialis Drug/Device
Transport's lead product, SoloVir(TM), utilizes a proprietary drug formulation and an electrokinetic delivery-device to create a revolutionary paradigm shift in patient initiated treatment of herpes labialis, or cold sores. SoloVir(TM) enables the delivery of high doses of Transport's reformulated version of acyclovir, a drug approved for the treatment of cold sores, directly to impacted skin areas. SoloVir(TM) functions over a ten minute treatment time, delivering drug directly to impacted skin areas, at considerably higher concentrations than existing approved topical formulations. To date, Transport has clinically validated its technology in several US clinical trials in more than 750 patients using the company's first generation iontophoretic device and an approved topical acyclovir formulation including a Phase IIb double-blind, placebo-controlled study in which patients that were treated at the first stage of the herpetic episode (erythema stage) demonstrated a three day difference in healing time and all patients demonstrated a median time to healing of one day and one half. (Clinical Infectious Disease V. 43, p. 460)
About Transport Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Massachusetts-based Transport Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a privately-held venture backed company. To date, the Company has raised US $35.6 million in venture financing. Current venture investors include Quaker BioVentures, The Carlyle Group, The Hillman Company, The Halleran Company. For more information, please visit htt://www.transportpharma.com.
Transport Pharmaceuticals, Inc.CONTACT: Dennis Goldberg, Ph.D. President and Chief Executive Officer ofTransport Pharmaceuticals, +1-508-872-0433, dgoldberg@transportpharma.com;or Bryan Murphy, +1-978-745-4200, ext. 105, bmurphy@lavoiegroup.com orDonna LaVoie, +1-978-745-4200, ext. 103, dlavoie@lavoiegroup.com both ofLaVoie Group
Web site: http://www.transportpharma.com//