Announces Senior Management Changes
HORSHAM, Pa., Oct. 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Neose Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTEC) today announced changes to its senior management team, including the naming of George J. Vergis, Ph.D., as president and chief operating officer and the retirement effective October 31, 2005 of Joseph J. Villafranca, Ph.D., executive vice president, pharmaceutical development and operations. C. Boyd Clarke, who has served as president since April 2002, will remain chairman and chief executive officer. Dr. Vergis and David A. Zopf, M.D., executive vice president and chief scientific officer, will assume responsibility for the functions previously reporting to Dr. Villafranca.
The Company also reiterated its target of the fourth quarter of 2005 for submission to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of its response to the FDA's request for additional information to allow it to complete review of the Company's investigational new drug application for NE-180.
"George has made significant contributions over the last four years to developing our business strategy and establishing our collaborative relationships with Novo Nordisk and BioGeneriX AG, and demonstrated his ability to assume additional responsibilities," said Mr. Clarke. Commenting on Dr. Villafranca's retirement, Mr. Clarke said, "Joe created and managed the organization that allowed us to produce sufficient quantities of NE-180 for our early clinical trials and developed the processes necessary to allow for the anticipated transfer of production of proteins and reagents to our collaborative partners and contract manufacturers. I would like to thank Joe for all of his contributions and wish him well." Dr. Vergis, who has served as executive vice president, commercial and clinical development since February 2004, will now also be responsible for the Company's manufacturing strategy and operations, quality control, analytical, and project management functions. He joined the company as vice president, business and commercial development in July 2001. From 1996 to 2001, Dr. Vergis served as vice president, new product development and commercialization at Knoll Pharmaceutical Company, a division of BASF Pharma, responsible for the commercial planning, product development, and marketing for the cardiovascular, immunology, and critical care franchises. Prior to BASF, Dr. Vergis held a variety of clinical and medical marketing positions at Wyeth- Ayerst Laboratories and Warner Lambert Parke Davis. Dr. Vergis received his B.A. in biology and history from Princeton University, his Ph.D. in physiology from the Pennsylvania State University and an M.B.A. from Columbia University.
About Neose Neose is a biopharmaceutical company using its proprietary enzymatic technologies to develop improved drugs, focusing primarily on therapeutic proteins. Neose uses its GlycoAdvance(R) and GlycoPEGylation(TM) technologies to develop improved versions of drugs with proven safety and efficacy. Neose intends to apply its technologies to products it is developing on its own and to products it co-develops and co-owns with others. It also expects to make its technologies available, through strategic partnerships, to improve the products of other parties. Neose's first two proprietary candidates are NE- 180 (GlycoPEG-EPO), a long-acting version of erythropoietin, and GlycoPEG- GCSF, a long-acting version of granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF).
CONTACTS: Neose Technologies, Inc. A. Brian Davis
Sr. Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
(215) 315-9000
Barbara Krauter
Manager, Investor Relations
(215) 315-9004 For more information, please visit http://www.neose.com/.
Neose "Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding our business that are not historical facts, including, but not limited to, statements regarding the additional responsibilities of our management team, the strategic alternatives relating to our clinical manufacturing facility and the timing of our response to the FDA, are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties, including without limitation the risk that our management team will be unable to assume Dr. Villafranca's responsibilities, the risk that we will be unable to respond to the FDA in the fourth quarter of 2005 and the risk that we will not receive clearance from the FDA to initiate a Phase I clinical trial for NE-180. For a discussion of these risks and uncertainties, any of which could cause our actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statement, see the section of Neose's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004, entitled "Factors Affecting the Company's Prospects" and discussions of potential risks and uncertainties in Neose's subsequent filings with the SEC. DATASOURCE: Neose Technologies, Inc.
CONTACT: A. Brian Davis, Sr. Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, +1-215-315-9000, or Barbara Krauter, Manager, Investor Relations, +1-215-315-9004, both of Neose Technologies, Inc.
Web site: http://www.neose.com/
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