- Biotechnology Company Creates New Government Project Management Post -
GAITHERSBURG, Md., Nov. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- MedImmune, Inc.
(Nasdaq: MEDI) announced today that it has promoted several senior executives,
including Bernardus N.M. Machielse, Drs. to executive vice president,
operations; Frank J. Malinoski, M.D., Ph.D. to senior vice president, medical
affairs; Christine A. Dingivan, M.D., to senior vice president, clinical
development and operations; John C. Lewis, to vice president, global
engineering capital projects; and Herren Wu, Ph.D., to vice president,
antibody discovery and protein engineering. In addition, Alan S. Taggart has
joined the company in the newly created role of vice president, government
project management.
"We continue to build an extraordinarily talented team of senior leaders
at MedImmune who are focused on taking us to the next level in a way that is
in line with our core values of integrity, collaboration, hard work and
entrepreneurialism," said David M. Mott, chief executive officer and
president. "The promotion of Ben Machielse reflects his many contributions to
MedImmune over the years. Specifically, as a leader, Ben has instilled a
spirit of teamwork across departments and functions, and in so doing, has
created a common vision of operational excellence throughout his organization.
Likewise, the promotions of Christine Dingivan, Frank Malinoski, John Lewis
and Herren Wu reflect their growth and increasing contributions to our
business. Additionally, Alan Taggart brings a great deal of project management
experience that will help us further establish our relationships with the
government, particularly as it pertains to our influenza franchise. We are
fortunate to have each of these outstanding professionals on our leadership
team."
Management Promotions
As executive vice president, operations, Drs. Bernardus N.M. Machielse
adds responsibility for the company's engineering and facilities activities to
his role overseeing manufacturing, supply chain and quality. Drs. Machielse
was promoted to senior vice president, operations in January 2005 when he
assumed responsibility for all of manufacturing and supply chain operations.
Drs. Machielse joined MedImmune as vice president, quality, in 1999 and was
appointed senior vice president, quality, in September 2003. Prior to joining
MedImmune, Drs. Machielse was vice president, quality control and quality
assurance for Xoma Corporation. He also spent several years in various
manufacturing and quality positions at Centocor BV of the Netherlands. Drs.
Machielse holds a bachelor of science degree in medical biology and a master
of science degree in biochemistry from the University of Utrecht, the
Netherlands.
Dr. Christine Dingivan, senior vice president, clinical development and
operations, has assumed responsibility for all aspects of MedImmune's core
infrastructure for clinical development, including clinical operations and
strategic planning. Dr. Dingivan was appointed vice president, head of
clinical research and operations in August 2005 where she was responsible for
general management, strategic development and implementation of MedImmune's
global clinical research programs across all therapeutic areas -- infectious
disease, cancer and inflammatory disease. Prior to this position, she served
as vice president, strategic operations, clinical development. Since forming
the strategic operations group in 2002, Dr. Dingivan has developed this
department as the core operational and planning function for MedImmune's
clinical development department, with consolidation of global clinical
operations, training, medical writing, investigational drug management,
clinical trial contracts, finances and business management. Prior to her role
in strategic operations, Dr. Dingivan led the anti-T-cell clinical research
programs in GvHD, transplant and psoriasis. She joined the company in 1996 as
director, medical sciences in the medical affairs department. Dr. Dingivan
received her bachelor's degree in biomedical and chemical engineering from the
University of Pennsylvania and her medical degree from Dartmouth Medical
School. She received her training in general surgery with a focus in
transplant surgery at Northwestern University in Chicago.
In his new role as senior vice president, medical and scientific affairs,
Dr. Frank Malinoski will oversee marketed products and public policy in the
therapeutic areas of cancer, infectious disease and vaccines. Dr. Malinoski
joined MedImmune as vice president, infectious disease, medical affairs in
December 2005. In this position, he led MedImmune's infectious disease and
vaccines group within medical affairs, and was charged with providing medical
support for MedImmune's licensed products to health care providers and
consumers. Dr. Malinoski's responsibilities included overseeing the
development and implementation of late-stage clinical programs and educational
materials. Prior to joining MedImmune, Dr. Malinoski was president of TD
Consultancy, a consulting practice advising industry and government clients on
vaccine development issues. Previously, he worked at Oxxon Therapeutics, Inc.
as chief medical officer and executive vice president of development, and at
Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, where he held positions of increasing responsibility
including: vice president, global business development; vice president,
medical affairs; and assistant vice president, clinical affairs. Dr.
Malinoski earned his doctorate in microbiology from Rutgers University and his
medical degree from Albany Medical College. He holds a bachelor of arts degree
from Colby College in Waterville, Maine.
John Lewis, vice president, global engineering capital projects, is
responsible for all large-scale capital engineering projects, including the
major expansion at the company's Frederick Manufacturing Center (FMC) in
Frederick, Maryland. Mr. Lewis joined MedImmune in August 1999 as manager,
project engineering. In this role, he was responsible for several capital
projects, including implementing the company's proprietary enhanced yield
process at FMC in 2001, which expanded the center's production capacity of
Synagis(R) (palivizumab) from approximately 20 percent to 80 percent of
worldwide supply. Prior to joining MedImmune, Mr. Lewis served as a project
manager in the advanced technologies division of Black & Veatch. He holds a
bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from South Dakota State
University.
As vice president, antibody discovery and protein engineering, Herren Wu
is responsible for antibody discovery, antibody/protein engineering,
production cell line generation, structural biology, and protein mimetics. He
is actively involved in developing MedImmune's clinical- and preclinical-stage
product candidates, and also participates in target discovery and validation
for early research projects. Prior to joining MedImmune, Herren served as
head of the Molecular Biology Department at Tanox, Inc. and as an associate
director of antibody engineering and discovery at Applied Molecular Evolution,
now a subsidiary of Eli Lilly & Co. Herren received his bachelor of science
degree from the National Taiwan University and his Ph.D. in molecular and
cellular biology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
New Appointment
Alan Taggart joined MedImmune as vice president, government project
management in September 2006. In this role, he is responsible for coordinating
and managing MedImmune's government projects, including the recently awarded
$170 million Health and Human Services cell culture contract. He is also
responsible for identifying and capitalizing on additional government
contracting opportunities. Previously, Mr. Taggart was a management consultant
at Pittiglio Rabin Todd & McGrath where he led several significant cross-
functional business process change efforts to decrease product development
cycle time and improve operational efficiencies. Prior to that, he spent a few
years at Bausch and Lomb as a manufacturing and project manager. Mr. Taggart
began his career as an engineer at McDonnell Douglas. Mr. Taggart holds a
master's degree in management of technology from the University of Miami and
received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Florida
Institute of Technology.
About MedImmune, Inc.
MedImmune strives to provide better medicines to patients, new medical
options for physicians, rewarding careers to employees, and increased value to
shareholders. Dedicated to advancing science and medicine to help people live
better lives, the company is focused on the areas of infectious diseases,
cancer and inflammatory diseases. With more than 2,500 employees worldwide,
MedImmune is headquartered in Maryland. For more information, visit the
company's website at http://www.medimmune.com.
This announcement contains, in addition to historical information, certain
"forward-looking statements" regarding MedImmune's long-term, strategic
objectives. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations
and involve inherent risks and uncertainties, including factors that could
delay, divert or change current expectations and could cause actual outcomes
and results to differ materially from current expectations. In addition to
risks and uncertainties discussed in MedImmune's filings with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission, no assurance exists that development
efforts for the company's pipeline programs will succeed, that these programs
will receive required regulatory approval or that, even if regulatory approval
is received, products resulting from these programs will be commercially
successful. MedImmune undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking
statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise
except as may be required by applicable law or regulation.
SOURCE MedImmune, Inc.
CONTACT: Media: Jamie Lacey, +1-301-398-4035, or Investors: Beatrice
Pierre, +1-301-398-4905, both of MedImmune, Inc.