CAMBRIDGE, U.K., April 16, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- Astex Technology, the U.K. structure-based drug discovery company, today announced the appointment of Peter Fellner as non-executive Chairman of the Board. Dr. Fellner, CEO of Celltech Group plc, brings significant experience as a senior executive in both the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.
Dr. Fellner has been CEO of Celltech Group plc since 1990. During the past decade Celltech has evolved into one of the largest European-based biopharmaceutical companies. Its extensive U.S. and European operations include three research centers in Seattle (U.S.), Slough (U.K.) and Cambridge (U.K.). Previously, Dr. Fellner served as CEO of Roche U.K. from 1986 to 1990. From 1984 to 1986 he was Director of the Roche Research Centre and focused its programmes in the anti-viral field. From 1980 to 1984 he was a Director of Research at the Searle U.K. Research Center, after holding senior positions in the Searle U.K. Research organisation. Dr. Fellner has a number of other appointments, including membership of the U.K. Medical Research Council.
Dr. Fellner commented: "Astex possesses a number of leading edge technologies which it has successfully integrated to create a powerful drug discovery capability. They have rapidly assembled a very high quality science base and strong management team, enabling them to build an impressive range of collaborations with major companies. I am very pleased to be joining the Board at this exciting time of growth as we take the Company forward to the next stage of its development."
"There are few, if any, people in the U.K. with as much experience and expertise in the biotechnology/pharmaceutical industry as Peter Fellner. We are delighted that he has agreed to become Chairman of Astex and we are certain that he will add substantial value to the next phase of Astex's growth," said Stephen Bunting, Managing Director of Abingworth, the founding investors of Astex.
Astex Technology is a structure-based drug discovery company pioneering the use of high throughput X-ray crystallography for the rapid identification of novel drug candidates. The company's unique structural screening approach utilizes protein crystal structures to detect the binding of drug fragments, which are then optimised into potent lead compounds. Facilitating this approach is the company's integrated drug discovery platform of HTX(TM) technologies, which covers all aspects of structure-based research, including protein production, crystallization, structure determination, bioinformatics and computational and medicinal chemistry. Astex is focusing its drug discovery approaches on proprietary and public domain protein targets from families and/or pathways. This includes validated kinases, phosphatases and proteases implicated in human disease. Astex has research agreements with Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development focused on lead discovery and optimisation, and structural biology research agreements with AstraZeneca AB and Aventis Pharmaceuticals focused on solving novel cytochrome P450 crystal structures.