Amgen Names Brian Kotzin Vice President, Inflammation Clinical Development and Willard Dere Vice President, General Medicine.THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- Amgen Inc. (Nasdaq: AMGN), the world's largest biotechnology company, today announced the appointment of Brian Kotzin, M.D., to the position of vice president and head of the Inflammation Therapeutic Area, one of the company's core research and development areas. Kotzin will direct the global development efforts for all new Amgen product candidates in the inflammation area. The company also announced the appointment of Willard Dere, M.D., who formerly headed the Inflammation Therapeutic Area, to the position of vice president and head of General Medicine, a new emerging therapeutic focus area for Amgen. "Brian is a highly respected clinical scientist with an outstanding reputation in inflammation and immunology," said Beth Seidenberg, M.D., Amgen's senior vice president, Global Development and chief medical officer. "I am confident that with his expertise and leadership, Amgen will be well-positioned to continue building its world-class inflammation franchise and developing a diverse portfolio of products focused on improving patients' lives." Kotzin joins Amgen from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center The University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (UCHSC) is part of the University of Colorado System. It has recently been merged with the University of Colorado at Denver (UCD) to form the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center. in Denver, where he served as head of Clinical Immunology in the Department of Medicine and as director of the Autoimmunity Center of Excellence. He previously held the position of professor in the Departments of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Immunology at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center National Jewish Medical and Research Center is a research institute located in Denver, Colorado specializing in respiratory, immune and allergic research and treatment. It was founded in 1899 to treat tuberculosis, and is today considered one of the world's best medical research in Denver. In addition to previous academic posts in rheumatology and microbiology/immunology, Kotzin served at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Denver as chief of the Rheumatology Section. He received his medical degree from Stanford and undergraduate degree in Mathematics from the University of Southern California The U.S. News & World Report ranked USC 27th among all universities in the United States in its 2008 ranking of "America's Best Colleges", also designating it as one of the "most selective universities" for admitting 8,634 of the almost 34,000 who applied for freshman admission . He is board certified in rheumatology and internal medicine. Kotzin has won numerous honors, including the Kirkland Scholar Award for Lupus Research, the Henry Claman Chair in Clinical Immunology, the Gretchen Kramer Award for Outstanding Contributions to Medicine, and Chairmanship of the National Institutes of Health Autoimmunity Centers of Excellence. Kotzin was recently appointed to the Advisory Council of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, or NIAMS, is an institute of the National Institutes of Health, an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. at the National Institutes of Health. He has published extensively and served on the editorial boards of Arthritis and Rheumatism, The Journal of Immunology The Journal of Immunology (The JI) is an academic journal that publishes basic and clinical studies in all aspects of immunology. It is owned and published by The American Association of Immunologists. Having an impact factor of 6. and the Journal of Clinical Investigation The Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI or J Clin Invest) is a leading biomedical journal, which is radically different from many of its peers in having a high impact factor (in 2006, 15.754) and offering all its contents entirely free. . Dere will now lead general medicine, a new therapeutic area for Amgen consisting of bone, metabolism, nephrology, neurology, cardiology and endocrinology. The creation of this new therapeutic area demonstrates Amgen's commitment to its growing portfolio of general medicine products. "We are pleased to recognize Will's accomplishments with this appointment," said Seidenberg. "Since joining Amgen in 2003, he has made significant contributions to our product development organization and he brings a tremendous amount of experience in general medicine to this new key position." Prior to joining Amgen and successfully leading the inflammation therapeutic area, Dere was vice president of Endocrine, Bone and General Medicine Research and Development at Eli Lilly and Company Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) is a global pharmaceutical company and one of the world's largest corporations. Eli Lilly's global headquarters is located in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the United States. . He previously was clinical associate professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine The Indiana University School of Medicine is the medical school of Indiana University, part of the Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI) campus located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Established in 1903, the school had an initial class of 25 students. and held hospital appointments at Wishard Memorial Hospital Wishard Memorial Hospital, located in Indianapolis, Indiana, is one of Indianapolis' oldest hospitals. The hospital was founded in 1855 in response to a smallpox epidemic in the city. During the Civil War, Wishard was used by the Union Army to treat soldiers. and Richard Roudebush Veteran's Administration Medical Center in Indianapolis, Indiana. He also was an assistant professor at the University of Utah The University of Utah (also The U or the U of U or the UU), located in Salt Lake City, is the flagship public research university in the state of Utah, and one of 10 institutions that make up the Utah System of Higher Education. School of Medicine and held hospital appointments at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center and Veterans Administration Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah For ships of the United States Navy of the same name, see . Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake, or its initials, S.L.C. . Dere received his medical and undergraduate degrees from the University of California at Davis. Amgen is a global biotechnology company that discovers, develops, manufactures and markets important human therapeutics based on advances in cellular and molecular biology. |
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