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- Appointments Support Advancement Towards Clinical Development Stage -
PARIS, September 24 - GenOdyssee, S.A., a biotherapeutics company specializing in discovering and developing drugs from functional genomics, today announced the appointment of additional members to its senior management team. In a move to expand upon the management team's breadth of expertise, GenOdyssee has appointed Jean-Marc Giry to Vice President of Strategic Planning, Dr Philippe Rêmes to Vice President of Investor Relations and David Briscoe to the position of Vice President of Business Development. At the same time Jean-Marc Giry, Dr Philippe Rêmes and Dr Jean Maral, who joined GenOdyssee in June 2001 as Vice President Pre-Clinical and Clinical Affairs, are all appointed members of the Board of Directors
Jean-Marc Giry brings over 20 years of marketing and business development experience to GenOdyssee. He joins the company from X-PM Transition Partners, an Executive Interim and Transition Management Services company. Prior to this, Jean-Marc held the positions of Vice President, Strategic Marketing at Gemplus, the leading smart cards manufacturer, and of Director of Marketing for the French subsidiary of Oracle, the leading database and enterprise software vendor. In those positions, he developed a strong expertise in fields such as international management, business modelling and strategic planning, market positioning, and global communications of publicly traded companies. In his role as Vice President of Strategic Planning at GenOdyssee, Jean-Marc will drive the establishment of the company's business model and strategy, as well as its global marketing plan. Jean-Marc received his MBA in enterprise management from H.E.C., the Jouy-en-Josas (France)-based business school in 1981, as well as a Master's Degree in Computer Sciences from Dauphine University (Paris, France) in 1982.
Dr Philippe Rêmes joins GenOdyssee with 20 years of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Dr Rêmes held positions of increasing responsibility within Tyco Healthcare, most recently as Vice President of Northern Europe, in which he oversaw the strategic and operational management of subsidiaries in the UK, France, Ireland, Scandinavia and the Benelux. Under Philippe's tenure at Tyco Healthcare, the company's profits grew 15% per year. He previously served as a business unit manager with Johnson & Johnson, where he was responsible for the successful introduction of biotechnology products, including E.P.O., into the French market. As Vice President of Investor Relations for GenOdyssee, Philippe will be active in the company's corporate finance activities. Philippe received his MD in 1984 from Medical School of Paris VI (Laureate of the faculty - Faculty prize winner (bronze medal)).
Dr Jean Maral has over 20 years of experience in the development of therapeutic protein variants. Dr Maral joined GenOdyssee in June 2001 from Chiron Biopharmaceuticals Europe, where he had served as Director of Clinical and Scientific Affairs since 1995. While at Chiron, Jean was responsible for the successful multinational organisation of clinical and pre-clinical development for several oncology, haematology and infectious disease products. Before joining Chiron Biopharmaceuticals, Dr Maral served successively as Director of Clinical Research with Pierre Fabre Laboratories, then Medical Director with Amgen France. Jean is in charge of developing the therapeutic protein variants discovered by GenOdyssee. He received his MD from Internat des Hôpitaux de Paris in 1980 and a PhD in biochemistry in 1981.
David Briscoe has over 27 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, most recently serving as Commercial Director of the British biotechnology company Pharmagene, where he was responsible for overseeing the company's worldwide commercial activity, and in which he delivered the company's first multi-million dollar sale. Prior to his tenure there, Mr Briscoe served as President of European Operations for Incyte Genomics, and held positions of increasing responsibility within Chiron, most recently as Vice President of International Therapeutic Sales. As Vice President of Business Development, David will be responsible for establishing GenOdyssee's partnerships with the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. David received his BSc degree in zoology from the University of London in 1973.
"We are very pleased to welcome Jean-Marc, Philippe and David to GenOdyssee," commented Jean-Louis Escary, Ph.D., Founder, President and CEO of GenOdyssee. "Each of these individuals has a wealth of experience which, combined with Jean Maral's strong experience in biotherapeutic development, will be key in helping us grow into a successful biopharmaceutical company. Each will play a critical role as we seek to enter into strategic alliances and to bring our first product candidates, proprietary variants of interferon alpha for the treatment of cancer and hepatitis C, into the clinic in 2003, and as we further develop a variant of EPO for development in anaemia and potential other indications."
About GenOdyssee S.A.
GenOdyssee S.A. is a French biotherapeutics company founded in October 1999. The company pursues a dual business model: it offers genetic analysis services through its division GenOdyssee Genetics and aims to develop its own therapeutics through its division GenOdyssee Pharmaceuticals. GenOdyssee Genetics has developed a fully integrated high throughput (HT) screening platform that provides a unique set of post-genomic services including genetic polymorphism HT detection and identification, HT genotyping, bioinformatics and functional proteomics. Through its division GenOdyssee Pharmaceuticals, the company has developed a unique approach to human genetic variability and applied it to more than 100 genes coding for therapeutic proteins, to their receptors and to the tyrosine kinases involved in the corresponding biological pathways.
This program has reaped successful results. As a result of its original product R&D approach, the company started its second year of existence with a portfolio of 84 lead candidates. The company has an ongoing functional proteomics program to study the biological effects of these molecules, and 32 of them have already shown therapeutic potential. In 2001, GenOdyssee filed 30 patent applications and launched preclinical studies with its first ten lead candidates.
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