San Diego, CA, May 22, 2007 - Mpex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of antibacterials for the treatment of life-threatening infections, today named Daniel D. Burgess as Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Burgess joins from Hollis-Eden where he served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer since 1999. Mr. Burgess will add significant biopharmaceutical industry, financial and operational experience to Mpex as the Company continues to progress its clinical and preclinical programs.
"We are delighted to welcome Dan to Mpex and are confident that his impressive background across the biotech industry will be a real asset to us as we move into the next stage of development as a company," said Dr. Michael Ross, Chairman of the Board. "Mpex has completed the foundation work necessary to initiate key clinical activities in the U.S. and Europe with our lead clinical compound, MP-376. Dan will be instrumental in helping Mpex move this compound forward aggressively in clinical trials and will also work with our research team to advance exciting new antibacterial candidates from our product pipeline."
"I am thrilled to be joining Mpex at this critical time," stated Mr. Burgess. "The need for new antibiotic approaches is great, and the highly experienced scientific staff at Mpex has positioned the Company well to be able to offer innovative solutions to meet this need. I look forward to working with this talented group to bring important new options to patients."
Prior to joining Hollis-Eden, Mr. Burgess was employed at Nanogen where he served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Previously, he spent ten years at Gensia Sicor, Inc. (acquired by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited) where his positions included Vice President and Chief Financial Officer responsible for finance and business development and at Gensia Automedics, Inc. where he served as President and as a director. At Gensia, he was heavily involved in numerous in-licensing and out-licensing transactions with a number of large pharmaceutical companies and helped the company raise more than $400 million in private and public equity. Previously, Mr Burgess held positions at Castle & Cooke, Inc. and Smith Barney, Harris Upham and Company.
Mr. Burgess received his BA in Economics from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Mr. Burgess is a member of the Board of Directors of Santarus, Inc. and Metabasis Therapeutics, Inc.
About Mpex Pharmaceuticals:
Mpex Pharmaceuticals, a San Diego-based biotechnology company, is focused on the discovery and development of new antibacterial drugs to meet the growing clinical need created by multi-drug resistant bacterial pathogens. The Company's internal development pipeline focuses on improving existing antibiotics by utilizing methods and potentiators to overcome or directly inhibit molecular mechanisms in bacteria responsible for antibiotic resistance. The lead product is an aerosol antibiotic in Phase I clinical development that can be delivered to the lungs at concentrations significantly higher than the antibiotic's Mutant Prevention Concentration, creating a more effective agent, with a lower propensity for resistance, for a variety of chronic pulmonary infections. The Company has also built an antibiotic discovery and development platform and intellectual property estate around inhibitors of bacterial multi-drug resistant (MDR) efflux pumps (EPIs). By seeking to make existing, proven antibiotics significantly better, Mpex is pursuing a relatively lower risk strategy for developing new anti-bacterial agents with significant market potential. For more information: www.mpexpharma.com
