LONDON, August 1, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- Trigen Ltd. today announced the appointment of Dr. Suresh Chahwala as VP Drug Discovery and Dr. Sophie Combe as VP Clinical Development. Both appointments bring a wealth of complementary cardiovascular expertise to Trigen's growing team.
Dr. Suresh Chahwala joined Trigen from Pfizer, Sandwich, U.K. where for 15 years he led cardiovascular and neurodegeneration drug discovery. Whilst there, he successfully discovered and developed 7 new chemical and biological entities into the clinic and beyond in thrombosis, atherosclerosis, restenosis, stroke and diabetic neuropathy. In addition, he has built and successfully led discovery teams as well as managed external collaborations with biotech companies. Before Pfizer, he obtained a BSc in biochemistry from Kings College London, a PhD from the University of Aston, Birmingham in Biochemical Pharmacology and postdoctoral studies on signal transduction mechanisms at Harvard University, USA.
Dr. Sophie Combe joined Trigen from Aventis where from 1988 she led the global clinical development of enoxaparin (the marketleading $1.5 billion blockbuster antithrombotic Lovenox(R)/Clexane(R)) for prevention of DVT in surgical, trauma and internal medicine patients. In addition, she has cochaired its Global Project Team for Aventis' next generation antithrombotic products including intravenous factor Xainhibitor and was global clinical project leader for that program. She obtained her MD from University of Paris VI in 1982 followed by a thesis in 1985 and an MSc degree in 1989 in Immunology, Biotechnology and Transfusion from the same University.
"Trigen's strategy is to establish a biopharmaceutical franchise in occlusive and inflammatory cardiovascular disease," said Dr. Sanjay Kakkar, Chief Executive Officer of Trigen. "We are therefore delighted that Suresh and Sophie have joined Trigen, bringing outstanding discovery and clinical development expertise in this disease area, completing Trigen's Management team and positioning Trigen for its next stage of growth."
In addition to the above, Trigen recently announced the appointment of Dr. Tony Kennedy, formerly Global Head of Project Management at Roche Pharma as VP Development and Oliver Boucher, formerly a Director of Business Development at GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals as VP Commercial Development. In May 2002, Trigen transferred the Drug Discovery Group of the Thrombosis Research Institute to its own operations.
Trigen is a private U.K. biotechnology company, based in London, developing novel drugs for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases with a focus on thrombosis. Trigen has two products in clinical trials from its lead drug development programme; an intravenous and an oral formulation of an anticoagulant, direct thrombin inhibitor. In addition, Trigen has other programmes focused on atheroma, thrombosis and inflammation in discovery/preclinical development. Trigen was founded in 1992 to invest in and develop the drug discovery technologies of the world-renowned Thrombosis Research Institute ("TRI") in London.