Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Announces Executive Appointments

EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J., Feb. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: SVNT) today announced that it is strengthening its management team with three new executive appointments as it begins the commercial launch of KRYSTEXXA. Louis Ferrari will join Savient as Senior Vice President, North America Commercial; Christine Mikail will join Savient as Senior Vice President, Corporate Development; and Stephen Davies will join Savient as Chief Information Officer and Group Vice President. In these newly created positions, Messrs. Ferrari and Davies and Ms. Mikail will report to John H. Johnson, Chief Executive Officer.

“We are pleased to welcome Louis, Christine and Stephen to Savient,” said Mr. Johnson. “This is an exciting time for Savient and these are three key additions that will help make for a successful commercial launch of KRYSTEXXA. Today’s appointments will augment our already strong team of talented executives and employees, all of whom are committed to bringing this life-changing therapy to adult patients suffering from chronic gout refractory to conventional therapy. I look forward to working closely with Louis, Christine and Stephen and the entire Savient team as we embark on this next phase in Savient’s history.”

Mr. Ferrari comes to Savient with over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including expertise in product launches, new product development, international marketing, sales management, sales training, and clinical trials. At Savient, Mr. Ferrari will be responsible for all commercial activities in North America. Mr. Ferrari previously served as Vice President of Oncology and Nephrology, Sales and Marketing at Centocor Ortho Biotech, where he was responsible for sales of Procrit and Doxil. Prior to that he served as Vice President of Clinical Affairs and Executive Director of Clinical Affairs at Centocor Ortho Biotech. Mr. Ferrari has also held positions at Johnson and Johnson, Oxford GlycoSciences, Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical and Lilly. Mr. Ferrari earned his Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from the Brooklyn College of Pharmacy and a Masters of Business Administration from Adelphi University.

Ms. Mikail is a proven leader with significant experience in high-growth business development and management, complex transaction structuring and negotiation, intellectual property and patent portfolio management, and regulatory and clinical strategy, as well as public company representation. In this new role, Ms. Mikail will be responsible for all business development activities and strategic planning, including the initiative to launch KRYSTEXXA globally. Previously, Ms. Mikail served as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary for ImClone Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Company, as well as a member of Eli Lilly’s Transactions Center of Expertise. In these roles she was responsible for a broad range of business and legal functions, including managing all legal matters for ImClone Systems and negotiating, structuring and managing complex business development transactions for Eli Lilly and Company. Prior to that Ms. Mikail worked at the law firms of Reed Smith LLP, Lowenstein Sandler PC and Wilmer Hale. She earned her Bachelor of Arts from Rutgers University and J.D. from Fordham University School of Law.

Mr. Davies brings over 20 years of experience in developing and managing IT and business strategy for biotech companies and will lead Savient’s information technology team. Mr. Davies will be responsible for building out all global information systems support for the KRYSTEXXA launch. Prior to joining Savient, Mr. Davies served as Vice President of Information Technology at ImClone Systems, where he was responsible for developing an IT approach to enable international expansion and improved infrastructure security. Prior to that Mr. Davies served as Executive Director of Research, Development and Medical Systems at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Mr. Davies has also held positions at Revlon, Inc. and TIAA-CREF. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from Rowan State University.

ABOUT SAVIENT PHARMACEUTICALS, INC.

Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a specialty biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing KRYSTEXXA (pegloticase) for the treatment of chronic gout in adult patients refractory to conventional therapy. Savient has exclusively licensed worldwide rights to the technology related to KRYSTEXXA and its uses from Duke University (“Duke”) and Mountain View Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“MVP”). Duke developed the recombinant uricase enzyme and MVP developed the PEGylation technology used in the manufacture of KRYSTEXXA. MVP and Duke have been granted U.S. and foreign patents disclosing and claiming the licensed technology and, in addition, Savient owns or co-owns U.S. and foreign patents and patent applications, which collectively form a broad portfolio of patents covering the composition, manufacture and methods of use and administration of KRYSTEXXA. Savient also manufactures and supplies Oxandrin® (oxandrolone tablets, USP) CIII in the U.S.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release are forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties that could cause actual results and achievements to differ materially from those expressed in such statements. These risks, trends and uncertainties are in some instances beyond our control. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “will” and other similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. In particular, any statements regarding the success of our marketing efforts, and market demand, for KRYSTEXXA are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties and are based on our assessment and interpretation of the currently available data and information, current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections about our business and the biopharmaceutical and specialty pharmaceutical industries in which we operate. Important factors that may affect our ability to achieve the matters addressed in these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, our ability to commercialize KRYSTEXXA; our ability to retain the personnel whom we have hired and to hire the remaining personnel necessary to complete the build out of our commercial team; whether we have identified the root cause of the batch failures at our manufacturing facilities; whether the remediation steps that we have taken will eliminate or minimize these batch failures moving forward; if the remediation steps that we have taken do not reduce our batch failure rate, the risk that the FDA could require us to cease manufacturing KRYSTEXXA until we have been able to reduce our batch failure rate; our reliance on third parties to manufacture, market and distribute KRYSTEXXA; the risk that the market for KRYSTEXXA is smaller than we have anticipated; competition from existing therapies and therapies that are currently under development, including therapies that are significantly less expensive than KRYSTEXXA; our ability to gain market acceptance for KRYSTEXXA among physicians, patients, health care payors and others in the medical community; whether we are able to obtain financing, if needed; economic, political and other risks associated with foreign operations; risks of maintaining protection for our intellectual property; risks of an adverse determination in intellectual property litigation; and risks associated with stringent government regulation of the biopharmaceutical industry and other important factors set forth more fully in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, to which investors are referred for further information. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of publication of this press release. Actual results or events could differ materially from the plans, intentions and expectations disclosed in the forward-looking statements that we make. Our forward-looking statements do not reflect the potential impact of any future acquisitions, mergers, dispositions, joint ventures or investments that we may make. We do not have a policy of updating or revising forward-looking statements and, except as required by law, assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

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SOURCE Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc.