SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Nov. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Athenagen Inc., a privately held biopharmaceutical company, announced today that co-founder (Ken) M. Kengatharan, Ph.D., has joined the company in a full-time capacity as Vice President, Pre-clinical R&D. While working in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at Stanford University, Dr. Kengatharan co-founded Athenagen with John Cooke, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Medicine at Stanford and Athenagen’s Chief Scientific Officer.
“Ken has extensive experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, in both corporate development and pre-clinical research and development, and we are very pleased to have him on board at Athenagen on a full-time basis,” stated W. Scott Harkonen, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer. “Since our R&D strategy is based on the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) pathway in angiogenesis that was discovered and characterized by John Cooke, Ken Kengatharan and their colleagues at Stanford University, we are fortunate to have Ken leading our internal discovery research and pre-clinical programs.”
Prior to joining Stanford, Dr. Kengatharan was Director of Corporate Development and later Vice President of Pre-clinical R&D at OxoN Medica Inc, a South San Francisco-based biotech company where he spearheaded pre-clinical drug development as well as R&D operations. He obtained his Ph.D. in Pharmacology at the William Harvey Research Institute, at the University of London with Nobel laureate Sir John Vane. Later, in the section of vascular biology at the Institute, Dr. Kengatharan directed translational research that included the development of animal models of cardiovascular disease for studies of the pathobiology of vascular alterations in sepsis, diabetes and atherosclerosis, and supervised research and educational efforts. Previously, he was an associate scientist at Rhône-Poulenc Rorer (now Sanofi-Aventis Pharmaceuticals) where he developed novel drug screening assays and bioinformatics programs.
Athenagen also said it has hired Xiaoming Zhang, Ph.D., as Senior Director, Chemistry. Dr. Zhang’s previous industry experience includes positions as Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and ARYx Therapeutics, Inc., and Program Leader at Roche Palo Alto. In more than 10 years of pharmaceutical research, he contributed to discovery and development of multiple drug candidates, two of which are under clinical evaluation in stress incontinence and deep vein thrombosis (DVT). Dr. Zhang earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from University of Maryland and completed his postdoctoral research at University of California, Berkeley. He holds 15 issued and pending U.S. patents.
About NAChR
Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) have been known to exist for many years in the nervous system and to have a role in mediating certain physiological functions. In 1999, scientists at Stanford University discovered that the nAChR pathway plays a critical role in angiogenesis. Studies performed at Stanford demonstrate that stimulation of the nAChR pathway increases blood vessel growth and inhibition of the nACh receptor decreases blood vessel growth. These studies have also shown that the nAChR pathway works in a parallel and in a complementary fashion to the VEGF pathway. Agents that target the nAChR pathway could represent a novel class of drugs to treat diseases characterized by abnormal angiogenesis, including cancer, age-related macular degeneration and non-healing wounds. The company aims to develop novel, proprietary inhibitors of specific nACh receptors that would provide greater potency and specificity in the blockade of abnormal angiogenesis.
About Athenagen
Athenagen Inc., located in South San Francisco, is engaged in the development of small-molecule drugs designed to either inhibit or enhance angiogenesis, based on the discovery of a new endothelial cell angiogenesis pathway, known as the nAChR pathway. Athenagen’s lead products are being developed as oral compounds to treat diseases caused by enhanced angiogenesis, such as cancer and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), as well as topical formulations to treat diseases caused by impaired angiogenesis, such as non-healing wounds. Athenagen plans to introduce two drug candidates into the clinic in 2006: ATG001, an oral anti-angiogenesis compound, for exudative age-related macular degeneration and ATG002, a topical pro-angiogenesis compound, for diabetic foot ulcers. The company recently announced its $5.69 million Series A financing led by Sanderling Ventures, with participation from Life Science Angels. For more information: www.athenagen.com.
Athenagen Inc.
CONTACT: W. Scott Harkonen, M.D., President and CEO of Athenagen Inc.,+1-650-616-1920, or press@athenagen.com
Web site: http://www.athenagen.com/