MONTREAL, Jan. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ - The NEOMED Institute disclosed on
Monday, the composition of the inaugural Board of Directors. "I am
extremely pleased today to identify the members of our first Board of
Directors. We have worked very hard to identify individuals that have
the expertise, experience, energy and networks to collaborate with the
management team and our founding members to realize the ambitious
mission we have set for ourselves at NEOMED. It was critical to ensure
that our first board members brought to the table a combination of
skills that will allow them to contribute to all aspects of our rapid
establishment and future success. Our board was carefully chosen to
encompass a wide range of knowledge, practical experience and success
in all aspects of drug development, licensing, business development,
fund raising and corporate governance" declared Max Fehlmann, President
& CEO of NEOMED Institute.
NEOMED Institute's new Board of Directors includes:
Mr. Donald Olds, Chairman of the Board. Mr. Olds is an experienced and
successful executive who is currently President & CEO of Presagia
Corporation. Prior to Presagia, he was Chief Operating Officer of
Aegera Therapeutics where he was responsible for business development,
clinical operations and finance. He also sits on the boards of Bellus
Health (TSX: BLU), the Quebec Consortium for Drug Discovery (CQDM) and
Oxfam, Quebec.
Dr. Michael J. Berendt, PhD, consultant and ex-President & CEO of Aegera
Therapeutics Inc. Prior to Aegera, Dr. Berendt worked in life sciences
venture capital, as Managing Director for AEA Investors and Research
Capital. He also served as Senior VP of Pharmaceutical Research for
Bayer, U.S. and has a long and successful career in drug discovery and
development with the Bayer and Pfizer organizations.
Mr. Rod Budd, who held a position as partner and leader of the Life
Sciences Practice in Ernst & Young for 25 years until his retirement in
2010. Mr. Budd also serves on the Advisory Board of the Rosalind and
Morris Goodman Cancer Centre of McGill University, advises a number of
private companies, and also sits on the Boards of Bioniche Life
Sciences and Immunotec.
Dr. Jacques Gagné, PhD, President of the Quebec Biotechnology Innovation
Centre (QBIC), President of Prix Galien Canada, Vice-president of
"Montréal InVivo" and retired Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy at
"Université de Montréal".
Mr. David Levine, consultant and ex-President and CEO for the Montreal
Regional Health and Social Service Agency.
Dr Neil Maresky, MD, Vice-President Scientific Affairs at AstraZeneca
Canada. Dr Maresky also sits on the board of the Quebec Consortium for
Drug Discovery (CQDM).
Dr. Bernard Prigent, MD, Vice-President and Medical Director of Pfizer
Canada. He also acts as a board member for the Canadian Institutes of
Health Research (CIHR), the Institute of Health Economics of Alberta
(IHE), ,and the Health Research Foundation, Rx&D.
Dr. Joseph Vacca, PhD, the former Global Head of Structural Chemistry
and Vice President of Chemistry at Merck Research Laboratories in
Kenilworth, New Jersey. He currently acts as Senior Vice President of
the Early Success Sharing Partnerships (ESSP) business unit of
WuxiApptec Ltd. His work on the HIV-1 protease project led to the
discovery of Merck's HIV protease inhibitor CRIXIVAN (indinavir
sulfate). Dr. Vacca has over 100 publications and patents and is the
holder of many awards including a Merck Directors Award given by the
Merck board of Directors (1998); PhRMA Discoverers Award (1999);
Intellectual Property Owners "National Inventor of the year Award"
(1997); European Inventor of the Year (non-EU nation)(2007); ACS "Award
for Creative Invention" (1999); and was a named a Merck Research
Laboratories Presidential Fellow in 2008. He was recently named to the
American Chemical Society Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame (Aug. 2012).
"The NEOMED Institute represents an innovative and catalytic approach to
drug discovery in the modern world. I am convinced that the only way
that we will be able to overcome our common challenge of finding better
and faster ways of developing treatments for unmet medical needs is by
creating new paradigms whereby the strengths of partnerships can be
focussed on common goals. I believe that NEOMED is exactly the type of
solution that is called for and I believe that the new board and
management team have the complementary skill sets that will allow them
to succeed. This approach is unique in the world and one that has been
permitted by the forward thinking of the founding members of this
partnership" summarized Donald Olds, Chairman, NEOMED Institute.
About NEOMED and the NEOMED Institute
NEOMED is a not for profit organization that will pioneer a new approach
to drug development as a public-private partnership with government and
biopharmaceutical companies. NEOMED is a response to the changing
Pharma R&D business model: in view of the considerable gap between
basic research and later stage drug development, we seek to create a
bridge. We will provide expertise and funding for academic labs and
early biotechs, assisting them in bringing emerging therapeutic
approaches to the stage of human proof of concept; at which point these
de-risked projects will have gained significant value for NEOMED's
downstream partners.
Occupying the former AstraZeneca facility in the Technoparc Montréal,
the NEOMED Institute is a biopharmaceutical research hub based on a new
model. There, players in the life sciences ecosystem (pharmaceutical
companies, biotechs, venture capitalists and contract research
organizations (CRO)) will be co-located to facilitate innovation,
collaboration and creativity. The Institute and its partners will
benefit from an impressive array of rare and highly specialized
equipment in laboratories specifically designed for the discovery of
small molecule drugs.
SOURCE NEOMED Institute