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| KAI Pharmaceuticals Appoints Steven P. James as Chief Executive Officer |
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October 19, 2004 Biotechnology executive brings 20 years of corporate and business development expertise to KAI South San Francisco, CA – October 19, 2004 – KAI Pharmaceuticals Inc., announced today that Steven P. James has been appointed as president and chief executive officer of KAI Pharmaceuticals. Mr. James brings over 20 years of senior management experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries to KAI Pharmaceuticals. John Walker, who has served as acting CEO, will remain on the company’s Board of Directors. “KAI is at an exciting stage in its evolution as a product-focused, technology-driven biotechnology company and Steve is the ideal person to lead our company through the next phases of its growth and development,” said John Walker, acting CEO. “Steve’s extensive experience in operational and financial management, business development and commercialization strategy will be invaluable to KAI as the company rapidly advances its clinical and preclinical therapeutic pipeline of protein kinase C modulators for the acute treatment of ischemia and reperfusion injury and for diseases involving chronic regulation of angiogenesis. The board of directors and management of KAI are delighted that Steve is joining us and welcome him enthusiastically to the team.” “In a very short time, KAI has leveraged its discovery platform to generate a rich clinical and preclinical pipeline of novel compounds that have significant therapeutic and commercial potential,” said Mr. James. “I am particularly excited about the company’s recently initiated Phase I/II clinical study of its lead therapeutic program, KAI-9803, a protein kinase C inhibitor to reduce reperfusion injury associated with acute myocardial infarction. The scientific team at KAI has made enormous strides in exploiting the potential of modulating protein kinase C isozymes to address a broad range of unmet medical needs. I appreciate the opportunity to work with this superb team and look forward to leading the company’s efforts to meet our ambitious clinical and business objectives.” “On behalf of the KAI team, I would like to express our thanks and admiration for the outstanding leadership John Walker has provided to KAI and my enthusiasm for working with him and the KAI board to realize our company’s full potential,” added Mr. James. Mr. James most recently held the position of senior vice president of commercial operations at Exelixis, Inc., a publicly traded genomics-based drug discovery company, where he was responsible for managing and expanding the company's business development and corporate development activities. At Exelixis, Mr. James played a critical role in developing corporate strategy for business development, in-licensing, acquisitions and strategic marketing. Prior to his position at Exelixis, Mr. James served as chief business officer at Sunesis Pharmaceuticals where he was instrumental in raising over $80 million of venture and partner financing and securing alliances with Merck, J&J and Biogen, as well as in establishing the corporate, financial and management infrastructure that were crucial to Sunesis’ rapid growth during its early years. Prior to Sunesis, Mr. James was vice president of business development at Isis Pharmaceuticals where he led a broad range of partnering activities and cultivated new strategic opportunities for the company. Mr. James previously held business development, marketing and general management positions with Landec Corporation, California Biotechnology (Scios Inc.) and Eli Lilly & Company. He holds a Bachelor's degree in biology/neuroscience from Brown University and a Master's degree in management, marketing and healthcare management from Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management.
About KAI Pharmaceuticals |