Axiom Biotechnologies Sharpens Drug Discovery Focus with New Senior Management Team Members.

Business Editors and Health/Medical Writers

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SAN DIEGO--(BW HealthWire)--March 22, 2001

New Management Team Members Michael R. Kozlowski, Ph.D., Damien

Dunnington, Ph.D., and Steve Brown, Ph.D. Bring Nearly 45

Years of Drug Discovery Experience to Axiom

Axiom Biotechnologies Inc. Thursday announced that it has appointed three new members, each with significant drug discovery experience, to its senior management team.

Michael R. Kozlowski, Ph.D, has joined as chief operating officer, Damien Dunnington, Ph.D., is now vice president of Discovery Research and Steven J. Brown, Ph.D., has been appointed director of Molecular Pharmacology.

Kozlowski has nearly 20 years of drug discovery experience in both large pharmaceutical companies (Pfizer, NYSE:PFE; Bristol-Myers Squibb, NYSE:BMY) and biotechnology companies (Geron Corp., NASDAQ:GERN, Telik Inc., NASDAQ:TELK). Before coming to Axiom he was vice president of Biology Research at Telik.

Dunnington has over 16 years of pharmaceutical drug discovery experience, including 14 years at SmithKline Beecham (NYSE:SKB) and two years at Aventis. Prior to coming to Axiom he was the group head of Profiling, Screening and Laboratory Automation at Aventis.

Brown has more than eight years of drug discovery experience at Chugai Biopharmaceuticals where, prior to joining Axiom, he was a senior scientist and project leader. The drug discovery efforts of these scientists have led to nearly a dozen clinical candidates.

"The extensive drug discovery experience of these new team members reflects Axiom's commitment to using our rapid, high-definition human cell assay platform to produce better and safer drugs for the post-genomics era," said Pandi Veerapandian, Ph.D., Axiom's president and CEO. "Axiom will now be better positioned to apply our technologies to drug discovery both with our biotechnology and pharmaceutical partners, and in our internal programs."

Axiom Biotechnologies is a privately-held biotechnology company focused on producing drugs that are more effective, safer, and producing them more rapidly, by applying its proprietary suite of rapid, high-definition cell assay resources. These resources include the Axiom Human Cell Bank, a large pharmacologically and genetically characterized collection of human cells, as well as proprietary technologies to discover better drugs.