Barbeau Pharma, Inc. (BPI), a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on applying its proprietary technologies and reformulation know-how to transform today’s problem drugs into differentiated value-added medicines, announced that Charles N. Blitzer has been appointed to the position of President and CEO.
“Barbeau has made significant progress in advancing its development pipeline towards commercialization, and Chuck Blitzer has a proven track record leading and transitioning specialty pharmaceutical companies for product driven growth,” said John T. Spitznagel, Barbeau’s Chairman of the Board. “Having a strong, highly experienced Chief Executive Officer like Chuck onboard to oversee day-to-day operations reflects a major milestone in Barbeau’s growth strategy.”
Commenting on today’s announcement, Mr. Blitzer said, “I am very excited about joining Barbeau and share in John’s and the Company’s enthusiasm regarding BPI’s prospects for success.”
The Company’s lead development drug, BPI-103, is a proprietary reformulated highly pure and stable intravenous form of the hypertensive agent hydralazine hydrochloride. Barbeau has obtained Orphan Drug Designation for hydralazine to treat severe preeclampsia and eclampsia in pregnancy, conditions currently treated by “off-label” use of the drug. “A 505(b)(2) New Drug Application for use of BPI-103 for this indication could be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as early as mid-year 2006, and Orphan Drug Designation would provide seven years marketing exclusivity upon approval,” noted Mr. Blitzer.
“Moreover, there are currently five drugs in the development pipeline, including BPI-107 for Crohn’s Disease and BPI-205 for nocturnal enuresis which, respectively, utilize the Company’s proprietary, ground-breaking MADDS(TM) and ECLYPS(TM) prodrug technology platforms,” said Mr. Blitzer. “In addition, BPI-202, for bipolar disease and epilepsy, and BPI-204, for 1) chemotherapy induced nausea/vomiting, 2) delayed onset emesis and 3) gastroparesis, exemplify the Company’s overall dedication to prodrug design. I applaud Barbeau for these achievements and am delighted to have the opportunity to participate in moving the Company forward to the next level, commercialization.”
“I am also proud to be part of an executive management team of exceptionally talented professionals, including Donald L. Barbeau, the Company’s founder and Chief Scientific Officer, George Conbeer, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Jack Jiang, Ph.D. who recently joined the Company to serve as Vice President, Research and Development.”
Mr. Blitzer further noted, “The accumulated wealth of experience of this management team, coupled with the vast experience of our board in the areas of marketing, sales and business development, stands as a testimony to our commitment to enrich the breadth and depth of the development pipeline while continuing to fuel the momentum toward the marketplace.”
He concluded saying, “We are well along the path toward adding a senior-level sales and marketing professional to build our in-house capabilities and examine out-licensing opportunities to maximize the commercial success of anticipated product launches. We are highly optimistic that this key management milestone will be met in the very near term.”
Charles N. Blitzer, President & CEO and Director
Mr. Blitzer has been a pharmaceutical executive for almost 30 years and, during the early phase of his career held key management positions ranging from General and Patent Counsel to Vice President-Licensing and Business Development for Marion Laboratories and Marion Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, predecessor companies of Sanofi-Aventis SA (NYSE:SNY). At Marion, he in-licensed products that produced over $1 billion in US sales and later played a key role in the merger and integration of the company into Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals.
From 1996 to mid-2003, Mr. Blitzer served as President and CEO of MGI Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:MOGN), a public biopharmaceutical company with 2004 revenues approximating $200 million. During his tenure at MGI Pharma, he oversaw an expansion in the company’s market capitalization from $42 million to more than $1 billion.
Prior to joining Barbeau, Mr. Blitzer served as President and CEO of Fulcrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held drug design and development company. He received a B.S. in Pharmacy from the University of Toledo, a J.D. in law from American University, and a Masters in Business Administration from Rockhurst College.
Donald L. Barbeau, Chief Scientific Officer, Director & Founder
Mr. Barbeau possesses over 32 years of proven business and scientific expertise as a healthcare professional, principally in pharmaceutical development. Prior to BPI, he founded Biomega Corporation, a medical information consulting firm specializing in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. For more than 15 years, Biomega provided comprehensive information to decision makers, particularly with regard to patent and scientific literature analyses, preparation of strategic technology assessments, and publishing drug monographs describing the latest clinical information on new drugs awaiting FDA approval. A medical publishing firm acquired this drug monograph business.
Previously, Mr. Barbeau conducted cardiovascular research at the University of Chicago and was employed as a scientific expert and patent agent for American Hospital Supply Corporation which was acquired in 1985 by Baxter International, Inc. (NYSE:BAX). He is the recipient of B.S. and M.S. degrees in Biochemistry and Biophysics and was a graduate research fellow in Biochemistry at the University of Chicago under a grant from the National Institutes of Health. Mr. Barbeau is a registered patent agent.
George Conbeer, Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Conbeer’s background encompasses over 20 years of experience in financial services and the medical industry. He has served in executive management and business development positions with companies that include eCredit.com, Copelco Capital, Inc., which has since been acquired by Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE:C), Comdisco Inc., and the equipment financing subsidiaries of the Bank of Boston and the Bank of America (NYSE:BAC).
Mr. Conbeer has demonstrated strong entrepreneurial skills in his ability to organize and manage new business ventures. While at Comdisco, he founded and served as President of Comdisco Medical Equipment Group and Comdisco Medical Exchange, two subsidiary companies that financed, remanufactured and sold high-technology medical devices. He also co-founded and served as President of the Medical Capital Company, a provider of healthcare finance, and currently serves on the advisory board of SalesChain LLC, an organization founded in 2001 to improve the operational and sales processes of small to mid-sized companies.
Mr. Conbeer is a graduate of Princeton University and attended New York University’s Graduate School of Business.
Jack Jiang, Ph.D., Vice President, Research & Development
Jack Jiang, Ph.D. has worked in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries for over 15 years. He brings to Barbeau diversified experience consisting of increasing responsibilities in research and development, operations, and business development. Dr. Jiang has led teams of professionals involved in a broad spectrum of research and development programs, ranging in scope from new drug discovery, pre-clinical and human clinical studies to the submission of Investigational and New Drug Applications and initiating cGMP compliant pilot plant production of drug candidates.
Dr. Jiang is also experienced with establishing licensing deals, arranging collaborative partnerships, and raising capital for start up companies. He has held senior management and executive level positions with broad-base multinational corporations such as Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) as well as specialty companies as Sphinx Pharmaceuticals, now a division of Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:ELY), and Genta Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: GNTA).
With more than 20 patents to his credit, Dr. Jiang received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Michigan State University. He has served as an adjunct professor for the University of North Carolina and the University of Massachusetts, and is currently on the faculty of the School of Pharmacy at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine.
About Barbeau Pharma, Inc.
Barbeau Pharma, Inc. is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development of differentiated, value-generating therapeutics for market segments of unmet medical need. Led by a highly experienced management team, the Company’s growth strategy centers on its ability to reformulate in-the-market therapies into new proprietary versions, representing the potential for enhancing the medical and market value of these therapeutics.
Barbeau’s development programs and reformulation techniques aim at generating improved product characteristics, including efficacy, safety, dosing, ease of administration, or biodistribution of a drug, which can lead to approval of a therapeutic for an entirely new indication. In addition to product specific reformulation programs, Barbeau’s development pipeline is supplemented by two leading-edge proprietary technology platforms. One is a prodrug platform, designated ECLYPS(TM), that has the potential to reduce adverse side effects, particularly cardiotoxicity, of many currently marketed drugs. The second platform is a Mucosal Adhesive Drug Delivery System, or MADDS(TM), that is designed to allow certain drugs to be delivered in site specific, site adhering and site retention form to inflamed tissues in various mucous membranes throughout the body. In addition, Barbeau maintains a tremendous degree of expertise in prodrug design which it plans to utilize in its continued expansion of its research programs. While enjoying patent and proprietary protection, drug therapies developed with the ECLYPS(TM), MADDS(TM) and general prodrug technology platforms are expected to be granted five-years marketing exclusivity under the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984 (Waxman-Hatch Act) upon receiving FDA approval.
In almost all instances, the Company intends to pursue regulatory approvals through the submission of 505(b)(2) New Drug Applications (NDA), partly based on data contained in a previously approved NDA or data generated by third parties. In many cases Barbeau plans on augmenting its regulatory filings with its own data from preclinical and, sometimes, clinical studies. Such studies would be confirmatory in nature and, therefore, involve less risk, lower cost, and speeder time to market than is typical of the more traditional drug discovery and development process.
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