PHENOMIX CORPORATION APPOINTS LAURA SHAWVER AS PRESIDENT AND CEO
Former SUGEN President to Guide Future Growth of Promising Forward-Genetics Company.
San Diego, CA - June 18, 2002 — The Phenomix Corporation, a privately held forward genetics company, today announced the appointment of Laura Shawver, Ph.D. as it's new President and Chief Executive Officer. The future growth of Phenomix will be guided by Shawver, who has left her post as President of SUGEN, Inc., a Pharmacia Corporation Company.
"I joined Phenomix because I am enthusiastic about the strength of the technology and the promise it holds for molecular targeted drug discovery," said Shawver. "Forward-genetics is one of the key biotechnologies for understanding the association of gene alteration and disease phenotypes. With its impressive scientific advisory board, management team and innovative approach to rapid genetic target research, Phenomix will be a leader in this new arena of discovery. I am looking forward to helping contribute to their success."
At SUGEN, a biotechnology subsidiary of Pharmacia, Shawver was responsible for the discovery and development of small molecule drugs that target cellular signal transduction pathways. Her contributions included efforts to help identify important kinase and phosphatase targets in human disease, including work on the VEGF receptor for anti-angiogenic therapy. Prior to joining SUGEN in 1992, she held positions at Berlex Biosciences (formerly Triton Biosciences), including Director of Cell Biology and Immunology where her research was focused on monoclonal antibodies against Her-2 for breast cancer. Shawver is a member of several editorial boards for leading industry journals and her professional affiliations include the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).
"We are very pleased to have Dr. Shawver leading the Phenomix management team," said John Diekman, Phenomix's Chairman of the Board. "She has an outstanding background in clinical and pharmaceutical research that complements the founding team's expertise in forward genetics and target validation. Her thorough understanding of current biotechnology and drug discovery company. She is a proven successful biotech CEO."
"This is a tremendous opportunity for Phenomix to move forward and advance our scientific and partnership goals," said Dr. Steve Kay, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Phenomix. "Laura is intimately familiar with the core issues associated with developing and delivering treatments for human diseases. Having worked as a senior corporate executive at a large pharmaceutical company, she also understands the value proposition that Phenomix brings to the industry. Her insight will shape Phenomix's priorities and positions us well to foster key partnerships with pharma companies."
In March 2002, Phenomix secured $32 million in first-round funding a group of internationally recognized venture investors. The company was founded by three of the world's premier forward genetics programs - the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) in San Diego, the Medical Genome Centre of the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, Australia, and the Department of Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.
About Phenomix
Phenomix takes a "forward genetics" approach to biomedical discovery by starting with a physiological model of the human disease of interest and then identifying and validating the genes or drug targets involved in that disease. This contrasts the more traditional "reverse genetics" or "gene-to-function" approaches used by today's genomics companies, where the research begins from an identified novel gene and focuses on determining its function and role in physiology and diseases. Consequently, "reverse genetics" is limited by current knowledge and techniques in first selecting the genes to study for disease treatments. Using the forward method, Phenomix starts by rapidly generating and screening physiological models to identify the best models and then, in a single step, discovers and validates the genes that are physiologically relevant. Phenomix combines target discovery, target validation and generation of relevant models for the disease into one efficient platform. Phenomix's corporate headquarters are in San Diego with additional operations in Canberra, Australia.
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