PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Telik, Inc. , today announced that Stefan Ryser has been appointed to the newly created position of Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy. Dr. Ryser brings to Telik more than 20 years of executive and investment experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, including 10 years as an independent Telik director.
Dr. Ryser most recently served as founding and managing partner of Bear Stearns Health Innoventures, a $212 million private equity fund established in 2000. He also founded and managed, beginning in 1998, International Biomedicine Management Partners, a biotechnology venture fund.
Previously, Dr. Ryser held various senior management positions of increasing responsibility at F. Hoffmann-La Roche, including Scientific Assistant to the President, Global Research and Development. While at Roche he led initiatives to assess the impact of emerging technologies on pharmaceutical research and development, and assisted in the establishment and management of strategic research and development alliances. Dr. Ryser has served on numerous boards of directors in both public and private biotechnology companies.
"Dr. Ryser's extensive industry experience and knowledge of Telik make him an important addition to our management team, and strengthen Telik's ability to achieve its key business goals," said Michael M. Wick, M.D., Ph.D., the company's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
"I am very pleased to join Telik," said Dr. Ryser, "and I look forward to working with its dedicated team to realize the full potential of Telik's product pipeline."
About Telik
Telik, Inc. of Palo Alto, CA, is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing novel small molecule drugs to treat serious diseases. The company's most advanced investigational drug candidates in clinical development are TELINTRA(R), a modified glutathione analog for the treatment of cytopenias due to myelodysplastic syndrome or chemotherapy, and TELCYTA(R), a tumor-activated prodrug for the treatment of advanced ovarian cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. Telik's product candidates were discovered using its proprietary drug discovery technology, TRAP(R), which enables the rapid and efficient discovery of small molecule drug candidates.
This press release contains "forward-looking" statements, including statements regarding Dr. Ryser's potential contribution to Telik and Telik's development of pipeline drugs and achievement of key business goals, as well as statements concerning the future development of TELINTRA and TELCYTA and diseases against which these drugs may be effective. These forward-looking statements are based upon Telik's current expectations. There are important factors that could cause Telik's results to differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements. Detailed information regarding factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by statements in this press release may be found in Telik's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the factors described in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in its quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2008. Telik does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements contained in this press release.
TELIK, the Telik logo, TELINTRA, TELCYTA, and TRAP are trademarks or registered trademarks of Telik, Inc.
CONTACT: Patricia P. Frias, Corporate Communications of Telik, Inc.,
+1-650-845-7927, pfrias@telik.com
Web site: http://www.telik.com//