PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Alexza Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALXA - News) announced today that Michael J. Taylor, PhD, DABT has joined the company in the newly created position of Vice President, Preclinical Development. Dr. Taylor will have primary responsibility for preclinical operations, including toxicology, pharmacology, analytical and bioanalytical development, and PK/ADME. He was most recently Sr. Director, Preclinical and Clinical Development Sciences for Protein Design Labs, Inc. and was previously Vice President, Non-Clinical Research and Development and Executive Director, Drug Safety and Evaluation for DURECT Corporation from 2000 to 2004. From 1996 to 2000, Dr. Taylor was Toxicology Department Head for the Urology and CNS Division of Roche Biosciences. Dr. Taylor is a board certified toxicologist and holds PhD and MS degrees in toxicology from Utah State University.
We are very pleased to welcome Mike to Alexza and to our Executive Team,” said Thomas B. King, President and CEO. “The growth in our product candidate pipeline has significantly increased the preclinical work on new potential product candidates and the expanding non-clinical work on our clinical-stage product candidates. We look to Mike to lead this important area of our development.”
Alexza is an emerging pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of novel, proprietary products for the treatment of acute and intermittent conditions. The Company’s technology, the Staccato(TM) system, vaporizes unformulated drug compound to form a condensation aerosol that allows rapid systemic drug delivery through deep lung inhalation. The drug is quickly absorbed through the lungs into the bloodstream, providing speed of therapeutic onset that is comparable to intravenous administration, but with greater ease, patient comfort and convenience. The Company has four product candidates in clinical development: AZ-001 (Staccato prochlorperazine) for the acute treatment of migraine headaches, AZ-002 (Staccato alprazolam) for the acute treatment of panic attacks associated with panic disorder, AZ-004 (Staccato loxapine) for the treatment of acute agitation in patients with schizophrenia and AZ-003 (Staccato fentanyl) for the treatment of patients with acute pain.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release includes forward-looking statements regarding growth of the Company’s product candidate pipeline and development of the Company’s product candidates. Any statement describing the Company’s expectations or beliefs is a forward-looking statement, as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and should be considered an at-risk statement. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, particularly those inherent in the process of developing and commercializing drugs. The Company’s forward-looking statements also involve assumptions that, if they prove incorrect, would cause its results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These and other risks concerning the Company’s business are described in additional detail in the Company’s Form S-1 dated March 8, 2006, and the Company’s Quarterly and Current Reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Forward- looking statements contained in this announcement are made as of this date, and we undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Source: Alexza Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
