SOLANA BEACH, Calif., Dec. 1, 1999 (PRIMEZONE) -- Situs Corp. (www.situscorp.com), a pioneer in intravesical drug delivery, today announced the appointments of Alan Hugh Bennett, M.D. and Randall Scott Hickle, M.D. to its Scientific Advisory Board.
Dr. Alan H. Bennett brings rich experience as the medical director of leading device manufacturers, key orchestrator of health care policies, and respected clinician and researcher. He just completed a four-year term as the industry representative to the FDA Gastro-intestinal and Urology Devices Panel, is a peer reviewer of Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and was a long time panelist on the Diagnostic and Therapeutic Technology Assessment Program (DATTA) of the American Medical Association. He was also the past Chairman of Health Policy Council of American Urological Association. Previously, Dr. Bennett was the Head of the Division of the Urological Surgery, Professor of Surgery, and Vice-Chairman of Department of Surgery at Albany Medical College. He was also Chief of Urology at Montefiore Hospital at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School and Chief of Urology at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr. Bennett is a graduate of Boston University School of Medicine.
Dr. Randall S. Hickle's distinguished career spans across industry and clinical medicine. He is the founder and Chairman of the Board at Scott Laboratories, Inc., a developer of sedation systems. At the same time, a board certified anesthesiologist, Dr. Hickle practices cardiac, major vascular and thoracic anesthesia as a partner of Great Plains Anesthesia at Methodist and St. Mary Hospitals in Lubbock, Texas. He completed his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital where he was the recipient of the prestigious Myra Award for excellence in pediatric anesthesia. Dr. Hickle is a graduate of Harvard Medical School.
The company's Scientific Advisory Board is chaired by Rodney Appell, M.D. (Cleveland Clinic Foundation) and includes Ananias Diokno, M.D. (University of Michigan), Miguel Lopez, M.D. (Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela), Curtis Nickel, M.D. (Queen's University, Ontario, Canada), Lowell Parsons, M.D. (UCSD and Co-Founder), and Alan Wein, M.D. (University of Pennsylvania Medical Center).
W. Tate Scott, president and chief executive officer of Situs Corp., said, "We are extremely pleased to have Drs. Bennett and Hickle join the Situs Scientific Advisory Board. I am certain that they will both add expert counsel and significant value as we move forward with our mission of helping those patients failing oral medication and being left behind with little hope. Intravesical drug delivery via the UROS System offers an innovative approach to treating these patients and giving them control over their condition."
The UROS Drug Delivery System is a revolutionary product designed to provide an innovative alternative to patients failing oral medications. Designed to deliver 28 days of therapy, the UROS System delivers a continuous, site-specific therapy directly to the bladder to minimize systemic side effects often associated with oral medications.
Situs Corporation is a pioneer in intravesical drug delivery. The UROS technology, the company's proprietary drug delivery platform, is capable of administering various pharmaceutical compounds directly to the bladder for the treatment of various local and systemic conditions.
The company's first target indication, overactive bladder, affects an estimated 17 million Americans, more than 30 percent of whom cannot tolerate the side effects of oral medications. Other potential applications of the UROS System include chemotherapeutic agents for bladder cancer, hormones for genitourinary conditions, and analgesics for pain.