GAITHERSBURG, Md., Feb. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Panacos Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a subsidiary of Boston Biomedica, Inc. (Nasdaq: BBII) announced today that it has appointed four eminent scientists to its Science and Development Advisory Board (SDAB). Panacos is a new company focusing on the discovery and development of antiviral drugs and vaccines with novel mechanisms of action. Its lead product candidates are potent inhibitors of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection. These pharmaceutical programs have been funded at BBI for several years and were recently transferred to Panacos in order to expedite their clinical development and maximize their value for BBI shareholders. Panacos has initiated a round of financing with the goal of raising capital from venture investors and others in order to become an independent private company during 2000. After completion of this financing, BBI intends to maintain a significant but less than 50% ownership interest in Panacos.
The SDAB provides strategic advice on Panacos's ongoing programs and future directions. The founding member of Panacos's SDAB is Professor K.H. Lee, Kenan Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Director of the Natural Products Laboratory at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). Professor Lee is one of the world's foremost natural product chemists and has collaborated for several years with Boston Biomedica and Panacos to identify natural products and their derivatives that inhibit HIV replication. He is an author on more than 400 publications, an inventor on over 30 patents and patent applications and has received numerous awards and honors. He obtained his B.S. in Pharmacy from Kaohsiung Medical College of Taiwan, his M.S. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from Kyoto University of Japan and his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Minnesota. "The formation of Panacos is the culmination of many years of anti-viral drug discovery research that has resulted in the identification of several families of potential HIV drug candidates with novel mechanisms of action," commented Professor Lee. "I am looking forward to working with the Scientific Board and the Panacos management team as we begin to move our lead drug candidates into clinical testing."
The other members of the SDAB include Dr. Jeffrey Jacobson, Director of the Mount Sinai AIDS Center, and Associate Professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, NY. Dr. Jacobson is responsible for overseeing the therapy of approximately 1800 HIV-infected patients. He is also Chairman of the NIH-Adult AIDS Clinical Trials Therapeutic Immunology Group. In addition to ACTG trials, Dr Jacobson is currently conducting a number of commercially sponsored HIV drug and vaccine clinical trials. Dr. Jacobson has published over 40 scientific papers on clinical studies and the clinical pathology of diseases, with particular focus on HIV and opportunistic infections. He completed both his BA in Biology and his MD at Cornell University Medical College. From 1981 to 1997 he was Chief, Infectious Diseases Section at VA Medical Center, The Bronx, NY.
Dr. Charles Grudzinskas also joins the SDAB. Dr. Grudzinskas is a consultant to the Center for Drug Development Science (CDDS) at Georgetown University and to MdBio. His expertise includes the strategy and tactics of drug development, regulatory affairs and project management. Dr. Grudzinskas' drug development career includes Vice President, Medications Development and Project Management, G.D. Searle and Company and Director, New Product Management at Lederle Laboratories. Prior to joining Searle, Dr. Grudzinskas was the first Director of the Medications Development Division of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the NIH. Dr. Grudzinskas is a registered U.S. Patent Agent. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and his B.Sc. from UCLA.
The fourth member of the SDAB is Dr. Philip C. Smith, Associate Professor in the Division of Pharmaceutics of the School of Pharmacy at UNC. Dr. Smith is an expert in drug disposition analysis, pharmacokinetics and bioavailability studies. He has 34 publications in peer-reviewed journals in these areas. Dr. Smith completed his B.S. in Pharmacy at the University of Illinois Medical Center and his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco. He held an assistant professorship at the College of Pharmacy at the University of Texas at Austin from 1988 to 1992 prior to joining the UNC faculty.
Dr. Graham P. Allaway, President and CEO of Panacos said: "Our SDAB comprises a group of highly experienced and talented scientists who work with us on a regular "hands-on" basis both as collaborators and in planning our drug discovery and clinical development strategies. Combined with our management team and Board of Directors, we now have expertise in all the key areas that we will need to achieve our product development goals."
Panacos has three pharmaceutical discovery and development platforms. In addition to the Natural Products Platform mentioned above, the Company has a Viral Fusion Inhibitor Platform aimed at identifying novel therapeutics for a variety of medically important viral diseases by targeting the first step in virus infection, fusion to a human cell. The Company's Vaccine Platform utilizes a proprietary approach for the generation of potential vaccines against HIV and other viruses, based on "fusion active regions" of the viruses' surface proteins that are critical to the infection process.
Statements contained in this news release that state the Company's or management's intentions, hopes, beliefs, expectations or predictions of the future are "forward-looking" statements. It is important to note that Panacos's actual results could differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from those projected include the possibility that due to unforeseen technical and other difficulties Panacos may not be able to develop its current technology into commercially successful products, Boston Biomedica may not be able to successfully raise the capital required for the development of Panacos's product lines or may not be able to establish Panacos as an independent company or such establishment may take longer than currently expected. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements is contained from time to time in Boston Biomedica's SEC filings, including but not limited to Boston Biomedica's report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1998 and on Form 10-Q for the periods ended March 31, June 30 and September 30, 1999. Copies of these documents may be obtained by contacting Boston Biomedica or the SEC.
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CONTACT: Graham P. Allaway, Ph.D. President and CEO; Richard T. Schumacher, Chairman; or William R. Prather, M.D., VP Corporate Development; 240-631-1395 or fax: 301-208-8829; all of Panacos Pharmaceuticals Inc.
