Avigen Announces Management Changes
March 27 2006 - 9:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
ALAMEDA, Calif., March 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Avigen, Inc.
(NASDAQ:AVGN) today announced that Dawn McGuire M.D. will be
resigning as Chief Medical Officer effective April 12, 2006 for
personal health reasons. Drew Jones M.D. has been appointed Senior
Director of Clinical Affairs and Michael Hensley M.D. will serve as
head of Avigen Regulatory Affairs. Dr. McGuire will work with Dr.
Jones and Dr. Hensley to ensure a smooth transition. Dr. Ken
Chahine, Ph.D., J.D., Avigen's President and Chief Executive
Officer, said, "We really appreciate Dawn's significant
contributions to Avigen's development progress and extend our best
wishes to her. Dawn successfully led the clinical planning efforts
for AV650 and AV411, and we look forward to moving these programs
into the clinic later this year." Dr. McGuire commented, "I regret
not being able to continue leading Avigen's very promising clinical
development programs but am pleased that they will be in the very
capable hands of Dr. Jones and Dr. Hensley." Drew Jones M.D.,
M.P.H., most recently served as Vice President of Clinical
Development and Regulatory Affairs for Galileo Pharmaceuticals,
Inc. where he was responsible for leading all clinical development
and regulatory strategy. Prior to that Dr. Jones served as Director
of Clinical Development for Alza Corporation (a Johnson and Johnson
Company) where he was responsible for the clinical management of
all aspects of drug development. Michael J. Hensley M.D. has held
senior clinical and regulatory positions at Chiron Corporation,
Connaught Laboratories, Schering Plough, Pharmacyclics and
Quintiles. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, Dr.
Hensley was a practicing pediatrician and Medical Officer for the
Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Chahine further commented,
"Avigen is very fortunate to have the talent and experience of Drew
and Mike leading our clinical and regulatory teams. Their proven
experience in successfully developing CNS compounds further
strengthens Avigen's development capabilities." About Avigen Avigen
is a biopharmaceutical company focused on unique small molecule
therapeutics and biologics to treat serious neurological disorders,
including neuropathic pain and neuromuscular spasm and spasticity.
Avigen's strategy is to complete the requirements of clinical
develop for each of the candidates in its product pipeline, and
continue to look for opportunities to expand its pipeline through a
combination of internal research, acquisitions, and in-licensing,
with the goal of becoming a fully integrated commercial
biopharmaceutical company committed to its small molecule and
biologics neurology products. The company currently has in
development AV650 for neuromuscular spasm and spasticity and two
candidates for neuropathic pain, AV411 and AV333. Additionally, the
company has in development a compound for the treatment of multiple
bleeding disorders, including hemophilia A and B, AV513. For more
information about Avigen, consult the company's website at
http://www.avigen.com/ . This press release contains
forward-looking statements, including Avigen's belief that it will
be able to expand its pipeline through internal research,
acquisitions, and/or in-licensing, and its belief that it will be
able to develop, commercialize or obtain value from its current
drug candidates for any indication. These statements are subject to
risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
materially from those projected in these forward-looking
statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among others,
the fact that development of small molecule therapeutics and other
therapeutic discovery and development is a time- and
resource-intensive process, which may result in the expenditure of
a significant amount of time and resources with no marketable
product resulting from the effort. Other risks and uncertainties
relating to Avigen are detailed in reports filed by Avigen with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, including Avigen's Annual
Report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2005, under
the caption "Risk Factors" in Item 1 of Part 1A of that report,
which was filed with the SEC on March 16, 2006. DATASOURCE: Avigen,
Inc. CONTACT: Michael Coffee, Chief Business Officer of Avigen,
Inc., +1-510-748-7372, or Web site: http://www.avigen.com/
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