Ancile Pharmaceuticals Announces Appointment of Janice E. Thompson, Ph.D., as President And CEO.SAN DIEGO--(BW HealthWire)--Sept. 9, 1999-- Ancile Pharmaceuticals Inc., developer of botanical drugs for the prescription and self-medication markets, announced today that its Board of Directors has named Janice E. Thompson, Ph.D., to the position of president and chief executive officer. Dr. Thompson, a natural products expert with significant experience in start-up company start-up company A new business. formation, has been employed at Ancile as vice president Scientific Affairs since its inception in 1998. Her responsibilities at the company have spanned a number of disciplines, including product selection and evaluation, licensing, and business development. Dr. Thompson succeeds Kevin J. Kinsella, a veteran venture capitalist Venture Capitalist An investor who provides capital to either start-up ventures or support small companies who wish to expand but do not have access to public funding. Notes: Venture capitalists usually expect higher returns for the additional risks taken. and entrepreneur who has held the top post at Ancile since co-founding the company in February 1998. Kinsella will continue to play an active role at the company as Chairman of the Board. "Janice brings a unique mix of industry experience, technical competency and leadership to Ancile during an important stage in the company's development," said Kinsella. "As a principal driver of the company's success thus far, Janice is the ideal person to lead Ancile as we move forward with multiple drugs in the clinic, numerous partnership discussions, and near-term commercialization plans." Dr. Thompson has 15 years of experience with natural product enterprises, where she has led technical and business programs relating to relating to relate prep → concernant relating to relate prep → bezüglich +gen, mit Bezug auf +acc the development and commercialization of both single natural products as drugs and complex botanical extracts as dietary supplements. From 1996 to 1998, Dr. Thompson was involved with the start-up of Pharmanex Inc., a botanical dietary supplements company recently acquired by NuSkin. At Pharmanex she initially held the position of vice president Regulatory Affairs Regulatory Affairs (RA), also called Government Affairs, is a profession within regulated industries, such as pharmaceuticals, medical devices, energy, and banking. Regulatory Affairs professionals usually have responsibility for the following general areas: From 1990 to 1995, Dr. Thompson was CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of CalBioMarine Technologies Inc., a marine natural products research company which she co-founded. From 1988 to 1990, Dr. Thompson was involved with the start-up of Affymax Research Institute (acquired by Glaxo in 1995), where she initially was director of Natural Product and Chemical Collections, and then director of New Program Development. From 1985 to 1987, Dr. Thompson was a project officer at the National Cancer Institute with responsibility for marine natural products programs within the Developmental Therapeutics Program. Dr. Thompson received her Ph.D. in 1982 from the University of California, San Diego UCSD is consistently ranked among the top ten public universities for undergraduate education in the United States by U.S. News & World Report.[3] It is a Public Ivy. [1] For graduate studies, most of UCSD's Ph.D. . Ancile Pharmaceuticals Inc. was founded in 1998 to develop important new botanical therapeutics for the prevention and treatment of common human disease. The company's mission is to rapidly establish a leadership position in the $15 billion, growing worldwide market for botanical products by developing and commercializing improved and differentiated medicines for prescription and self-medication use. Ancile has accelerated the drug development process by initiating late-stage clinical trials on botanical (e.g. plant-based) products for which there already exists significant safety-in-use data as well as strong clinical efficacy data. In May 1999, within one year of commencing operations, Ancile received an Investigational New Drug (IND) allowance from the FDA FDA abbr. Food and Drug Administration FDA, n.pr See Food and Drug Administration. FDA, n.pr the abbreviation for the Food and Drug Administration. for its first drug product and commenced a pivotal, double-blind, randomized ran·dom·ize tr.v. ran·dom·ized, ran·dom·iz·ing, ran·dom·iz·es To make random in arrangement, especially in order to control the variables in an experiment. , placebo controlled Phase II clinical trial Noun 1. phase II clinical trial - a clinical trial on more persons than in phase I; intended to evaluate the efficacy of a treatment for the condition it is intended to treat; possible side effects are monitored phase II . Currently, Ancile has multiple botanical products in development, and the company expects to file at least two additional INDs during 1999. Ancile employs approximately 50 people in San Diego, and Shanghai, China, with specialists in chemistry, biology, manufacturing, clinical development and regulatory sciences. To date, the company has raised nearly $11 million in venture capital and is in the process of closing a significant mezzanine financing Mezzanine Financing A hybrid of debt and equity financing. Mezzanine financing is typically used to finance the expansion of existing companies, and it is basically debt capital that gives the lender the rights to convert to an ownership or equity interest in the company if the round. Ancile's Board of Directors includes co-founder and Chairman Kevin J. Kinsella, co-founder and Vice-Chairman Ming-Wei Wang, M.D., Ph.D., Robert (Robin) Bellas (General Partner, Morgenthaler Ventures), James C. Blair, Ph.D. (General Partner, Domain Associates), Joseph A. Mollica, Ph.D. (Chairman, President & CEO, Pharmacopeia pharmacopeia /phar·ma·co·pe·ia/ (-ko-pe´ah) an authoritative treatise on drugs and their preparations. See also USP. pharmacopei´al United States Pharmacopeia see under U. ), and Howard D. Palefsky (former Chairman and CEO, Collagen). |
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