CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of novel treatments for autoimmune disease and cancer, today announced that Fazal Khan, Ph.D., has joined the Company as Vice President of Manufacturing. Dr. Khan will be an integral part of Merrimack’s leadership team and will be responsible for overseeing process and formulation development, contract manufacturing and facility design and construction.
“Fazal’s experience in the area of process development and cGMP manufacturing of biologic pharmaceuticals will significantly enhance our manufacturing expertise to support continued product development and future trials for our lead product, MM-093, as well as our emerging oncology pipeline,” said Vincent Simmon, Ph.D., Chief Operating Officer of Merrimack Pharmaceuticals. “We are extremely pleased to add Fazal to our team at this important time in our corporate development,”
Dr. Khan brings to Merrimack 25 years of process development and manufacturing experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceuticals sector. Most recently, he served as the Vice President at Cellective Therapeutics, Inc. which was acquired by MedImmune in October 2005. Prior to Cellective, Dr. Khan worked at Human Genome Sciences as Vice President of Manufacturing. Earlier, Dr. Khan was the Director of Biopharmaceutical Development and Manufacturing at Hoffmann-LaRoche, Inc. During his tenure at Hoffmann-LaRoche, Dr. Khan managed process development, scale-up and cGMP manufacturing of biotechnology products from microbial and mammalian cell culture. He managed teams responsible for design, construction, start-up, and validation of cGMP manufacturing facilities for various products including Roferon-A(R), PEG interferon(R) and Xenapax(R). Dr. Khan received his B.S. in Biology and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Aligarh University in India.
“Merrimack is in a unique and exciting position with a lead product completing phase 2 trials in two major indications, multiple product candidates in the pipeline and a novel drug discovery and development platform, Network Biology, which integrates high throughput quantitative biology, computational modeling, and chemical engineering to discover and develop novel product candidates,” said Dr. Khan. “I am thrilled to be joining Merrimack at this important stage of its development, and look forward to working with an incredibly talented team of people to help drive our future success.”
About Merrimack
Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of novel treatments for diseases in the areas of autoimmune disease and cancer. Its lead compound, MM-093, is currently in clinical development to treat patients with rheumatoid arthritis or with psoriasis. MM-093 is an investigational drug and has not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or any international regulatory agency. The company’s proprietary Network Biology discovery platform, developed with the help of leading scientists from MIT and Harvard, enables the high throughput profiling of protein networks as a basis for improved validation, lead identification and speed in the development of innovative, effective and safe therapeutics. Merrimack is a privately held company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For additional information, please visit http://www.merrimackpharma.com.
Contact:
James S. Scibetta, Executive VP & CFO
617-441-1043
Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
CONTACT: James S. Scibetta, Executive VP & CFO of MerrimackPharmaceuticals, Inc., +1-617-441-1043
Web site: http://www.merrimackpharma.com/
