CINCINNATI, May 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Building upon a long-standing record of successful partnerships, Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (PGP), a division of the Procter & Gamble Company , will bring its innovative and award-winning approach to forging key alliances to the 2007 BIO International Convention. At the convention, P&G executives will meet and explore opportunities with biotech leaders engaged in the research and development of therapeutics aligned with the Company's three focus areas - musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal and women's health.
P&G Pharmaceuticals, recipient of the 2007 Alliance Program Excellence Award from the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (ASAP), plans to continue the momentum at BIO, May 6-9 in Boston. This premier annual biotech conference is hosted by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), a nonprofit association that represents more than 1,100 members worldwide.
"Through our alliance building, we want to expand our leadership role by bringing new therapies to market in the women's health, gastrointestinal and musculoskeletal therapeutic areas," said Mark Collar, President of Global Pharmaceuticals & Personal Health at P&G. "We are seeking alliances that complement our core business strengths - areas where patients play an active role in managing their health, and areas where we can help improve patient outcomes."
Through its innovative Connect & Develop (C&D) model, P&G Pharmaceuticals exclusively licenses, partners or acquires all of its new drug candidates from biotech and pharmaceutical industry relationships to bring innovations to patients in need. This strategy has drawn notice from peers.
"We were pleased to recognize P&G Pharmaceuticals with an Alliance Program Excellence award for their exemplary commitment to implementing and sharing alliance best practices," said Nick Palmer, a Partner with Accenture Ltd., and chairman of the ASAP Awards Committee. "P&G Pharmaceuticals' collaborative mindset and dedication to alliance management has built a large, profitable business unit in company-record time. Company executives credit their alliance system with driving a profitable transformation across all of P&G. This is a company where alliances are not simply integrated into its strategy; alliances are its strategy."
The Company's announced partnership with ARYx Therapeutics exemplifies such synergy.
"One of the key reasons PGP was chosen by us as a partner was because of its partnership-oriented mindset and proven alliance track record," said Paul Goddard, Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, ARYx Therapeutics, a Fremont, California-based company involved in an alliance with P&G to co- develop a gastrointestinal compound, ATI-7505. "In our work together to develop ATI-7505, P&G's capabilities have been very apparent and welcomed by our team."
ASAP award winners are considered to be exemplary companies. Selection criteria included: serving as models of effective alliance management; being innovative by advancing the state of the art of alliance management; being high-impact by achieving major business success through alliance management;
and being open by willing to share experiences and best practices with other ASAP members and with the larger alliance professional community.
About Procter & Gamble
Three billion times a day, P&G brands touch the lives of people around the world. The company has one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Pampers(R), Tide(R), Ariel(R), Always(R), Whisper(R), Pantene(R), Mach3(R), Bounty(R), Dawn(R), Pringles(R), Folgers(R), Charmin(R), Downy(R), Lenor(R), Iams(R), Crest(R), Oral-B(R), Actonel(R), Duracell(R), Olay(R), Head & Shoulders(R), Wella(R), Gillette(R), and Braun(R). The P&G community consists of over 135,000 employees working in over 80 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G and its brands.
Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals, Inc.CONTACT: Elaine Plummer of P&G, +1-513-622-3662; or Susan Rood ofChamberlain PR Media, +1-212-884-0643, for Procter & GamblePharmaceuticals, Inc.
Web site: http://www.pg.com/
