SAN DIEGO, June 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Trius Therapeutics, Inc. today announced the appointment of Paul Truex to its Board of Directors. Truex is the founder, President and CEO of Anthera Pharmaceuticals. Previously? he served as President and CEO of Peninsula Pharmaceuticals where he raised over $81 million of institutional capital (including $21?000?000 from a key strategic partner) and negotiated both of Peninsula's product agreements with Shionogi & Co.? Ltd. and Takeda Chemical Industries. Peninsula was acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 2005 for $245 million in an all cash transaction. Earlier in his career, Mr. Truex was Vice President of Commercial Development for Versicor (subsequently Vicuron which was acquired by Pfizer) where he directed early commercial efforts for infectious disease products and assisted with the company's successful IPO. Before Versicor? he worked at Eli Lilly in various marketing and sales roles during the launch of three different products for the primary care physician market (Actos(R)? Evista(R)? and Humalog 75/25(R)).
"It is with great pleasure that we welcome Paul to the Trius Board," said David Kabakoff, Ph.D., Chairman of the Board of Trius. "His business development and product commercialization experience in anti-infectives fit very well with Trius' stage of development and strategy."
"I look forward to working closely with the Trius Board and management team to help build and realize value," said Truex. "Their lead clinical stage drug, TR-701, as well as their preclinical programs will provide the company with compelling business opportunities."
The addition of Truex to Trius' Board completes a transition following Trius' $30 million Series B financing completed in March. At that time, Risa Stack, Ph.D. of Kleiner Perkins joined the Board. Former board members Julia Brown and Takashi Kiyoizumi, M.D., Ph.D. have joined Trius' Business Advisory Board. Brendan O'Leary, Ph.D., of Prism Ventures now serves as a Board Observer. "We are indebted to Ms. Brown and Drs. Kiyoizumi and O'Leary for their service on the Trius Board and are grateful for their continued contributions in their new roles," said Jeffrey Stein, Ph.D., President and CEO of Trius.
About Trius Therapeutics
Trius Therapeutics is discovering and developing innovative antibacterial drugs for the treatment of infections caused by resistant pathogens. The company's lead drug candidate, TR-701 is a novel, oral and IV, oxazolidinone antibiotic with potent activity against drug-resistant Gram-positive bacterial pathogens including those resistant to Zyvox(R). Trius has licensed worldwide rights outside of Korea to TR-701 from Dong-A Pharmaceuticals. Trius' pipeline includes two additional structure-based drug design programs directed against novel antibacterial targets. For more information, visit http://www.triusrx.com.
CONTACT: Cathy Yarbrough, +1-858-243-1814, sciencematter@yahoo.com, for
Trius Therapeutics, Inc.
Web site: http://www.triusrx.com/
