Rib-X Pharmaceuticals Names Graham Johnson, Ph.D. as Vice President of Discovery
New Haven, Connecticut. February 6, 2003 — Rib-X Pharmaceuticals,
Inc., a privately held bioscience company focused on the discovery
of new anti-infectives, today announced that Graham Johnson, Ph.D.,
has been appointed to the newly created position of Vice President of
Discovery. Dr. Johnson will report to Dr. Susan Froshauer, President
and Chief Executive Officer of Rib-X.
"We are very excited that Dr. Johnson brings more than 25 years of drug discovery experience to Rib-X, along with an established track record of generating diverse clinical candidates," said Dr. Froshauer. "Graham is joining Rib-X at an important juncture in our Company's evolution as we move our science closer to the clinic. We have succeeded in assembling a team that includes some of the greatest minds in the field of anti-infective research, and our timeframe is firmly on target for the nomination of a clinical candidate this year."
Dr. Johnson comes to Rib-X from Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMS), where his twelve year tenure included positions such as Vice President of Discovery Chemistry for the company's Wallingford, Connecticut facility, and Interim Vice President of Neuroscience Biology. Under his leadership, Wallingford Discovery Chemistry generated numerous high quality clinical candidates nominated from diverse areas of discovery. In addition, Dr. Johnson served as a core member of numerous senior leadership governance committees for BMS. Before joining BMS in 1991, Dr. Johnson was with Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis, where he was jointly responsible for defining and implementing drug discovery strategies for three CNS related project teams. At the conclusion of his nine-year tenure, Dr. Johnson held the position of Director of Neuroscience Chemistry and was serving as the Co-Chairperson of the Cognition and Neurological Disorders Drug Discovery Teams. Dr. Johnson began his industrial career in 1978 with Hoechst UK, Ltd., one of two senior scientists responsible for developing the penem antibiotic program.
Dr. Johnson is named as an inventor on more than 50 U.S. patents and has co-authored more than 50 published scientific papers. Born and educated in England, Dr. Johnson received his university education (B.Sc. and Ph.D.) from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1975 he was awarded a Fulbright Senior Scholarship for Postdoctoral study in the United States. Dr. Johnson completed his university education with postdoctoral research with Professor Jack Baldwin at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Professor Sir Derek Barton at Imperial College in London and later at the Research Institute for Medicine and Chemistry in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
About Rib-X Pharmaceuticals
Rib-X Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a product-driven small-molecule drug discovery and development company focused on developing and commercializing antibiotics to treat highly-resistant bacterial infections. Based in New Haven, Connecticut, the Company has raised over $170 million and has two programs, delafloxacin and radezolid, in advanced clinical trials. In addition, a preclinical program featuring an entirely new class of broad-spectrum antibiotics with the potential to treat even highly- resistant Gram-negative infections is scheduled to begin clinical trials in 2011.
Rib-X designs and develops novel small-molecule antibiotics by leveraging the Company's Nobel Prize- winning discovery platform to perform structure-based design and optimization. While many commercially valuable classes of antibiotics bind to the bacterial ribosome, including oxazolidinones, tetracyclines and macrolides, traditional antibiotic discovery relies heavily on serendipity. Rib-X's key competitive advantage is its proprietary understanding of ribosome structure, which enables it to generate antibiotics that overcome known resistance mechanisms and have broad-spectrum activity.
Rib-X's integrated research strategy combines state-of-the-art, proprietary computational analysis, X-ray crystallography, medicinal chemistry, microbiology and biochemistry, thereby allowing Rib-X to rapidly synthesize new agents designed to avoid typical antibiotic resistance mechanisms. Rib-X's iterative intelligent engine has yielded several distinct new antibiotic classes.
"We are very excited that Dr. Johnson brings more than 25 years of drug discovery experience to Rib-X, along with an established track record of generating diverse clinical candidates," said Dr. Froshauer. "Graham is joining Rib-X at an important juncture in our Company's evolution as we move our science closer to the clinic. We have succeeded in assembling a team that includes some of the greatest minds in the field of anti-infective research, and our timeframe is firmly on target for the nomination of a clinical candidate this year."
Dr. Johnson comes to Rib-X from Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMS), where his twelve year tenure included positions such as Vice President of Discovery Chemistry for the company's Wallingford, Connecticut facility, and Interim Vice President of Neuroscience Biology. Under his leadership, Wallingford Discovery Chemistry generated numerous high quality clinical candidates nominated from diverse areas of discovery. In addition, Dr. Johnson served as a core member of numerous senior leadership governance committees for BMS. Before joining BMS in 1991, Dr. Johnson was with Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis, where he was jointly responsible for defining and implementing drug discovery strategies for three CNS related project teams. At the conclusion of his nine-year tenure, Dr. Johnson held the position of Director of Neuroscience Chemistry and was serving as the Co-Chairperson of the Cognition and Neurological Disorders Drug Discovery Teams. Dr. Johnson began his industrial career in 1978 with Hoechst UK, Ltd., one of two senior scientists responsible for developing the penem antibiotic program.
Dr. Johnson is named as an inventor on more than 50 U.S. patents and has co-authored more than 50 published scientific papers. Born and educated in England, Dr. Johnson received his university education (B.Sc. and Ph.D.) from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1975 he was awarded a Fulbright Senior Scholarship for Postdoctoral study in the United States. Dr. Johnson completed his university education with postdoctoral research with Professor Jack Baldwin at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Professor Sir Derek Barton at Imperial College in London and later at the Research Institute for Medicine and Chemistry in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
About Rib-X Pharmaceuticals
Rib-X Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a product-driven small-molecule drug discovery and development company focused on developing and commercializing antibiotics to treat highly-resistant bacterial infections. Based in New Haven, Connecticut, the Company has raised over $170 million and has two programs, delafloxacin and radezolid, in advanced clinical trials. In addition, a preclinical program featuring an entirely new class of broad-spectrum antibiotics with the potential to treat even highly- resistant Gram-negative infections is scheduled to begin clinical trials in 2011.
Rib-X designs and develops novel small-molecule antibiotics by leveraging the Company's Nobel Prize- winning discovery platform to perform structure-based design and optimization. While many commercially valuable classes of antibiotics bind to the bacterial ribosome, including oxazolidinones, tetracyclines and macrolides, traditional antibiotic discovery relies heavily on serendipity. Rib-X's key competitive advantage is its proprietary understanding of ribosome structure, which enables it to generate antibiotics that overcome known resistance mechanisms and have broad-spectrum activity.
Rib-X's integrated research strategy combines state-of-the-art, proprietary computational analysis, X-ray crystallography, medicinal chemistry, microbiology and biochemistry, thereby allowing Rib-X to rapidly synthesize new agents designed to avoid typical antibiotic resistance mechanisms. Rib-X's iterative intelligent engine has yielded several distinct new antibiotic classes.
| Public Relations |
|---|
|
Kari Watson
MacDougall BioMedical Communications 781-235-3060 kari@macbiocom.com |
| Investor Relations |
|
Sarah Cavanaugh
MacDougall BioMedical Communications 781-235-3060 scavanaugh@macbiocom.com |