WELLESLEY, Mass., April 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Coley Pharmaceutical Group, Inc. today announced that the company has appointed Ferdinand E. Massari, M.D., (age 46) to the position of Senior Vice President, Drug Development and Chief Medical Officer.
Dr. Massari is a research-trained physician with a background in immunology and infectious disease medicines. He brings more than 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including clinical drug development, new product registration, medical affairs and marketing. In his new role, Dr. Massari will oversee all of Coley’s drug development activities including the design and execution of Coley’s clinical and late-preclinical development programs and regulatory affairs. He will report to Robert L. Bratzler, Ph.D., Coley’s President and Chief Executive Officer.
“I’m pleased to welcome Dr. Massari to the Coley team. He brings a proven track record of success in drug development to Coley,” said Dr. Bratzler. “Dr. Massari’s leadership will also be invaluable as we move ACTILON to the next stage of development.”
Dr. Massari brings broad experience in drug development, in-licensing and out-licensing and marketing across multiple therapeutic areas in addition to infectious diseases. He most recently served as Vice President, Anti- infective/Respiratory/Urology Group, Worldwide Medical Affairs for Pfizer, where he was responsible for eight medical marketing teams across three therapeutic areas. In this position, he developed worldwide medical strategy for marketing, conducted Phase IIIb and IV studies and submitted numerous supplemental New Drug Applications. Prior to Pfizer’s acquisition of Pharmacia, he served as Pharmacia Corporation’s Vice President, Infectious Diseases, Women’s Health, Urology and General Medicine, Global Clinical Research. While at Pharmacia, he was responsible for the global clinical development of Zyvox, a novel antibiotic, which received regulatory approval in the U.S., Europe and Japan. In addition, Dr. Massari helped develop Pharmacia’s corporate strategy in infectious disease, including the company’s development of drug candidates for treatment of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Prior to Pharmacia, Dr. Massari held positions with Merck & Company, both in marketing and clinical research on a number of antiviral drug products.
Trained as a Fellow in Allergy/Immunology in the Laboratory of Immunoregulation at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Massari received his M.D. at Jefferson Medical School and served as an adjunct faculty member of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School.
About Coley Pharmaceutical Group
Coley Pharmaceutical Group, Inc. is an international biopharmaceutical company, headquartered in Wellesley, Massachusetts, USA, that discovers and develops TLR Therapeutics(TM), a new class of investigational drug candidates that direct the human immune system to fight cancers, infectious diseases, asthma and allergy. Coley has established a pipeline of four TLR Therapeutic product candidates currently advancing through clinical development either independently or with partners, and additional product candidates in preclinical development. Coley has product development, research and license agreements with Pfizer, sanofi-aventis, Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics (formerly Chiron), GlaxoSmithKline and the United States government. For further information on Coley Pharmaceutical Group please visit http://www.coleypharma.com .
Safe Harbor Statement
Certain statements in this news release concerning Coley’s business are considered “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include, but are not limited to, those relating to the timing and progress of clinical development of ACTILON. Any or all of the forward-looking statements in this press release may turn out to be wrong. They can be affected by inaccurate assumptions Coley might make or by known or unknown risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to: the early stage of product development; uncertainties as to the future success of ongoing and planned clinical trials; the risk that interim results from early stage clinical trials may not be indicative of results in later stage trials; the unproven safety and efficacy of products under development; intellectual property rights and litigation; competitive products; and other risks identified in Coley’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including, but not limited to, Coley’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2005. Consequently, no forward-looking statement can be guaranteed, and actual results may vary materially. Coley undertakes no obligation to publicly update forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.
Coley Pharmaceutical Group, Inc.
CONTACT: Charles H. Abdalian, Jr., Senior Vice President and CFO, ColeyPharmaceutical Group, +1-781-431-9044, cabdalian@coleypharma.com; Karen L.Bergman, +1.650.575.1509, kbergman@bccpartners.com or Michelle Corral,+1.415.794.8662, mcorral@bccpartners.com, both of BCC Partners(US), forColey
Web site: http://www.coleypharma.com/
