Dr. George M. Milne, Jr. Joins Rib-X Pharmaceuticals' Board of Directors
— Former Pfizer Executive also to Serve as Consultant to this Antibiotic Development Company
New Haven, Connecticut. January 6, 2004 — Rib-X Pharmaceuticals,
Inc., a privately held biotechnology company developing the next
generation of antibiotics, announced today that George M. Milne, Jr.,
Ph.D., a former Executive Vice President for Global Research and
Development at Pfizer Inc., has joined its Board of Directors. Dr.
Milne will also serve as a consultant to Rib-X. This appointment
brings the number of board members to eight.
"There is a critical need globally for new classes of antibiotics," said Dr. George M. Milne, Jr. "Rib-X has combined a world class antibiotics research and development team with exciting state-of-the-art structure based design technology that is focused on overcoming drug resistant bacterial infections. This combination has enabled the Company to attract exceptional financial support from the venture capital community. Collectively, these resources provide the Company a strong opportunity to bring a succession of new anti-infective drugs into the marketplace."
Dr. Milne's 32-year career with Pfizer covered all elements of biomedical innovation. He held many positions including, Senior Vice President for human health and veterinary Research and Development and Executive Vice President for Pfizer Global Research and Development. During Milne's leadership of the Research Division from 1993 to 2001, Pfizer's research investment increased five-fold from $493 million to over $2.3 billion, a number of significant products were developed, and a broad array of important new pharmaceutical products and discovery technologies were introduced. Dr. Milne was also responsible for a significant portfolio of Pfizer collaborations with prominent biotechnology companies.
"Having George Milne's insights into drug discovery as a board member and consultant provides Rib-X further competitive advantage in our drive to meet serious medical needs for new weapons against multi-drug resistant bacteria," said Susan Froshauer, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Rib-X. "We are honored to have George as a part of the team."
"George's extraordinary record of achievement in the pharmaceutical industry is rare and will no doubt prove an invaluable resource for the Company," said Harry H. Penner, Jr., Chairman of the Rib-X Board of Directors.
Dr. Milne also serves on the boards of Charles River Laboratories, Inc., Mettler-Toledo, Inc., Athersys, Inc., the Mystic Aquarium and the New York Botanical Garden. In addition, he is a Venture Partner with Radius Ventures, a health and life sciences venture capital firm based in New York. Dr. Milne received a B.S. in Chemistry from Yale University and his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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.
"There is a critical need globally for new classes of antibiotics," said Dr. George M. Milne, Jr. "Rib-X has combined a world class antibiotics research and development team with exciting state-of-the-art structure based design technology that is focused on overcoming drug resistant bacterial infections. This combination has enabled the Company to attract exceptional financial support from the venture capital community. Collectively, these resources provide the Company a strong opportunity to bring a succession of new anti-infective drugs into the marketplace."
Dr. Milne's 32-year career with Pfizer covered all elements of biomedical innovation. He held many positions including, Senior Vice President for human health and veterinary Research and Development and Executive Vice President for Pfizer Global Research and Development. During Milne's leadership of the Research Division from 1993 to 2001, Pfizer's research investment increased five-fold from $493 million to over $2.3 billion, a number of significant products were developed, and a broad array of important new pharmaceutical products and discovery technologies were introduced. Dr. Milne was also responsible for a significant portfolio of Pfizer collaborations with prominent biotechnology companies.
"Having George Milne's insights into drug discovery as a board member and consultant provides Rib-X further competitive advantage in our drive to meet serious medical needs for new weapons against multi-drug resistant bacteria," said Susan Froshauer, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Rib-X. "We are honored to have George as a part of the team."
"George's extraordinary record of achievement in the pharmaceutical industry is rare and will no doubt prove an invaluable resource for the Company," said Harry H. Penner, Jr., Chairman of the Rib-X Board of Directors.
Dr. Milne also serves on the boards of Charles River Laboratories, Inc., Mettler-Toledo, Inc., Athersys, Inc., the Mystic Aquarium and the New York Botanical Garden. In addition, he is a Venture Partner with Radius Ventures, a health and life sciences venture capital firm based in New York. Dr. Milne received a B.S. in Chemistry from Yale University and his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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.
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Kari Watson
MacDougall BioMedical Communications 781-235-3060 kari@macbiocom.com |
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Sarah Cavanaugh
MacDougall BioMedical Communications 781-235-3060 scavanaugh@macbiocom.com |