Bionaut Pharmaceuticals Secures Series A Funding; Appoints Kees Been as Chief Executive Officer.To download high-resolution, print-ready JPEG JPEG in full Joint Photographic Experts Group Standard computer file format for storing graphic images in a compressed form for general use. JPEG images are compressed using a mathematical algorithm. images, click on the thumbnail image above. WARNING: these images are very large (800K+) Click here for caption Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers BIOWIRE2K NOTE TO MEDIA: Multimedia assets available A photo is available at URL URL in full Uniform Resource Locator Address of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. : http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/photo.cgi?pw.070803/bb2 CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 8, 2003 Bionaut's Breakthrough Sentinel Technology Elucidates Pathways to Cures Bionaut Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today the expansion of its series 'A' financing to $6.8 million and the appointment of Kees Been as Chief Executive Officer. Kees joins Bionaut from Biogen to lead the Company's discovery and development of novel small molecule drug candidates. Bionaut utilizes its Sentinel Pathway Reporter System(TM) to correlate genetic activity in well-validated disease pathways directly with disease modulation in living cells. Collinson, Howe & Lennox of Stamford, Connecticut Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 119,261, making it the fourth largest city in the state. and HealthCap Venture Capital of Stockholm, Sweden were among the investors that participated in the series 'A' round. Proceeds from the financing will be used to expand the Company's cancer and inflammation cell lines and to develop a pipeline of pharmaceutical drug candidates. Bionaut's technology bypasses the need to first discover and validate presumptive pre·sump·tive adj. 1. Providing a reasonable basis for belief or acceptance. 2. Founded on probability or presumption. pre·sump biological targets. The Company's Chief Executive Officer, Kees Been, commented, "Our technology offers a rapid and elegant way to comprehensively elucidate e·lu·ci·date v. e·lu·ci·dat·ed, e·lu·ci·dat·ing, e·lu·ci·dates v.tr. To make clear or plain, especially by explanation; clarify. v.intr. To give an explanation that serves to clarify. complicated disease pathways in human cell lines and discover drugs in real-time that exclusively affect those pathways." Timothy Howe, Partner at Collinson, Howe & Lennox, and member of Bionaut's Board of Directors added, "We are very pleased to have Kees on board. His experience in biotech drug development will be instrumental as Bionaut moves to discover and develop its own small molecule drugs." About the Sentinel Pathway Reporter System(TM) Unraveling the complex regulatory mechanisms of disease remains a key objective in drug discovery. Bionaut's drug discovery platform, based on engineered cell lines, generates a better understanding of how different pathways regulate disease. The company uses its proprietary Sentinel Pathway Reporter System(TM) to tag specific disease-related genetic sites and directly monitor activity in regulatory pathways. This core technology provides a positive means of discovering novel compounds that selectively modulate To insert a data signal into a carrier wave or direct current. See modulation. pathways of interest, thus avoiding drug side-effects and potential drug failure due to a lack of pathway specificity and redundancy issues. Bionaut's Sentinel system could dramatically shorten the traditional 3 to 5 year "gene-to-screen" drug discovery process and lead to compounds with a high probability of success in the clinic. The Bionaut Leadership Team Bionaut was founded to commercialize the discoveries of its President and Chief Scientific Officer, Mehran M. Khodadoust, Ph.D., formerly a scientist at Millennium Pharmaceuticals Millennium Pharmaceuticals NASDAQ: MLNM is a biotechnology company based in the Cambridge, Massachusetts area of the United States of America. Founded in 1993, the company conducts research in various scientific areas, currently focusing on inflammation and oncology. . In addition, Bionaut's management team includes newly appointed 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. , Kees Been, and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Chief Operating Officer (COO) The officer of a firm responsible for day-to-day management, usually the president or an executive vice-president. , Thomas Klein. Kees Been has over 10 years of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President of Biogen's Oncology Business Unit. Earlier in his tenure at Biogen, Kees was responsible for all of the Company's activities in business development, mergers and acquisitions, corporate strategy and portfolio management. Bionaut has assembled a highly experienced Board of Directors which includes industry leaders William J. Herman, former Chairman & CEO, Innoveda; Timothy F. Howe, Partner, Collinson, Howe, & Lennox; and Harold E. Selick, Ph.D., former CEO of Camitro Corporation and Vice President of Research at Affymax Research Institute. Bionaut's Science Advisory Board consists of individuals with expertise in immunology immunology, branch of medicine that studies the response of organisms to foreign substances, e.g., viruses, bacteria, and bacterial toxins (see immunity). Immunologists study the tissues and organs of the immune system (bone marrow, spleen, tonsils, thymus, lymphatic , molecular biology molecular biology, scientific study of the molecular basis of life processes, including cellular respiration, excretion, and reproduction. The term molecular biology was coined in 1938 by Warren Weaver, then director of the natural sciences program at the Rockefeller and cancer drug discovery, and is chaired by Richard A. Flavell, Ph.D., currently Chairman of the Department of Immunology at the Yale University Yale University, at New Haven, Conn.; coeducational. Chartered as a collegiate school for men in 1701 largely as a result of the efforts of James Pierpont, it opened at Killingworth (now Clinton) in 1702, moved (1707) to Saybrook (now Old Saybrook), and in 1716 was School of Medicine and fellow with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Howard Hughes Medical Institute, (HHMI), nonprofit medical research organization founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes and largly funded from proceeds of the 1984–85 sale of Hughes Aircraft. Headquartered in Chevy Chase, Md. . About Bionaut Bionaut is discovering and developing novel small molecule drugs that selectively affect well-validated disease pathways utilizing its Sentinel Pathway Reporter System(TM). Bionaut's Sentinel system can greatly improve the clinical outcomes of new and existing drug candidates by correlating pathway-specific interference directly with disease modulation in living human cells. Bionaut is applying the highly predictive capabilities of its Sentinel system to build a pipeline of its own drug candidates in the areas of cancer and inflammation and to assist strategic partners with drug discovery and lead optimization in a variety of disease areas. Bionaut is a private biotechnology company founded in 2000, based in Cambridge, MA. More information is available at www.bionautpharma.com. Note: A photo is available at URL: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/photo.cgi?pw.070803/bb2 |
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