Rib-X Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Appoints Tom Kassberg Chief Business Officer
Rib-X Pharmaceuticals, Inc., development-stage company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel antibiotics for the treatment of acute-care antibiotic-resistant infections, announced today that Thomas R. Kassberg has joined the company as Chief Business Officer. In his new role, Mr. Kassberg will lead the company's business development activities.
Mr. Kassberg, age 49, joins Rib-X from Proteolix, Inc., where he served as Executive Vice President of Corporate Development, overseeing business development, corporate strategic planning and legal affairs. Prior to Proteolix, Mr. Kassberg had over a decade of experience in leadership roles in business development in the biotechnology industry, holding positions at InterMune, Inc., Plexxikon, Inc. (a company he co-founded) and SUGEN, Inc.
Mr. Kassberg began his career at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he held a variety of positions in finance, product and market analysis, and sales. Mr. Kassberg received his M.B.A. from Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and his B.A. from Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota.
"Tom joins Rib-X at a particularly important time in our growth, as we explore potential partnership opportunities for our lead antibiotic compounds, delafloxacin and radezolid, which have successfully completed multiple Phase 2 clinical trials," said Susan Froshauer, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Rib-X Pharmaceuticals. "His business development experience and background are an ideal fit for what we need at this stage in our maturation."
About Rib-X Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Rib-X Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a product-driven small molecule drug discovery and development company focused on the structure-based design of new classes of antibiotics. The Company's underlying drug discovery engine capitalizes on its proprietary high-resolution crystal structure of the ribosome, which performs an essential role in protein synthesis. Many known, commercially valuable antibiotics exert their effects by binding to the bacterial ribosome. The Company's integrated research strategy, which combines state-of-the-art, proprietary computational analysis, X-ray crystallography, medicinal chemistry, microbiology and biochemistry, allows it to rapidly synthesize new agents designed to avoid typical antibiotic resistance mechanisms. Rib-X's iterative intelligent engine has yielded several distinctive new antibiotics, including radezolid, that can be used for the treatment of either community- or hospital-acquired infections. Rib-X has successfully completed Phase 2 trials with delafloxacin (RX-3341), a broad-spectrum fluoroquinolone with potent activity against quinolone-resistant Gram-positive bacteria, including MRSA. Radezolid (RX-1741), an oxazolidinone that was discovered at Rib-X as an oral/IV agent for treatment of serious Gram-positive infections, has completed two Phase 2 trials. The Rχ-04 discovery program is developing novel classes of antibiotics active against multi-drug resistant Gram-negative bacteria, and the Rχ-02 discovery program is focused on developing an IV/oral macrolide active against methicillin-resistant S. aureus, multidrug-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae and S. pyogenes. Both delafloxacin and radezolid are currently in late-stage clinical trials.
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Gina Nugent
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