Oncologic Appoints Stephen T. Isaacs as President and Chief Executive Officer.BERKELEY, Calif. -- Oncologic, Inc. today announced that Stephen Isaacs has joined the company as President and 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. . Mr. Isaacs, 58, is also a director of the company, a position he has held for the past 9 months. Mr. Isaacs succeeds Roy K. Skogstrom, 51, who will become a consultant to the company and will remain as a director.Prior to joining Oncologic, Mr. Isaacs founded Cerus Corporation (NASD NASD See: National Association of Securities Dealers NASD See National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD). :CERS), and then served over 14 years as its President and CEO. Cerus is a biotechnology company focused on the development of products for the decontamination decontamination /de·con·tam·i·na·tion/ (de?kon-tam-i-na´shun) the freeing of a person or object of some contaminating substance, e.g., war gas, radioactive material, etc. de·con·tam·i·na·tion n. of blood components, and oncology applications. During this period, Cerus grew from approximately 10 employees to over 200. While at Cerus, Mr. Isaacs was responsible for running the company, managing the company's growth, and raising money to keep the project development programs on track. He led the company's IPO (Initial Public Offering) The first time a company offers shares of stock to the public. While not a computer term per se, many founders, employees and insiders of computer companies have found this acronym more exciting than any tech term they ever heard. in 1997 and managed a number of secondary financings. Mr. Isaacs also drove numerous licensing and partnership deals, including successfully negotiating agreements with Baxter Corporation (Intercept Blood Systems), the Consortium for Plasma Science, Kirin Brewery (cancer therapy), and MedImmune Corporation (cancer vaccines Cancer vaccines A treatment that uses the patient's immune system to attack cancer cells. Mentioned in: Pancreatic Cancer, Exocrine ). Cerus now has two licensed products in Europe. Under Mr. Isaacs, Cerus raised approximately $250 million from public and private placements, including contributions from various partnerships. At Oncologic, Mr. Isaacs will be responsible for daily management, strategic planning Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people. , fundraising, and investor relations Investor relations The process by which the corporation communicates with its investors. . In addition, he will coordinate technology and product development, and strategic technology placement. Mr. Isaacs joins a very experienced scientific team lead by Dr. Paul Chinn (Chief Scientific Officer) and Dr. Gary Braslawsky (Senior Vice-President and Director of Pre-clinical Development Pre-clinical development is a stage in the development of a new drug that begins before clinical trials (testing in humans) can begin, and during which important safety and pharmacology data is collected. ), both formerly of Biogen Idec Biogen Idec, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) is a biotechnology company specializing in drugs for neurological disorders, autoimmune disorders and cancer. The company was formed in 2003 by the merger of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Biogen and San Diego, California-based Idec (NASD:BIIB BIIB Basic Imagery Interpretation Brief ), where they were part of the senior scientific team responsible for the successful development and clinical approval of the anti-cancer drug Zevalin[R]. "Mr. Isaacs is a tremendous addition to the company," said Oncologic Chairman Winston Salser, Ph.D., founding President of Amgen, the world's largest biotechnology company (NASD:AMGN). "Steve's strong experience in managing growth, public and private fundraising, and commercializing a successful product give Oncologic a management team capable of maximizing the potential of the company's opportunity." Salser continued, "Outgoing president and CEO Roy Skogstrom will report to Mr. Isaacs and will be in charge of special assignments as a consultant. Roy has led the company since its inception and has done an outstanding job. We are thrilled to have both Steve and Roy as part of Oncologic." Mr. Isaacs stated, "I look forward to working with my new colleagues and establishing collaborative partnerships to enable Oncologic to achieve its full potential in both its core cancer technology and other strategic areas. My 14 years at Cerus will be valuable in guiding the company forward, and I'm pleased to be working at a company co-founded by Professor Henry Rapoport, who was also a member of the founding team of Cerus. I'm looking forward to the challenge of making Oncologic a successful biotechnology company." Mr. Isaacs holds a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from U.C. Berkeley, and has authored 20 scientific publications and 42 U.S. patents. About Oncologic, Inc. Oncologic, Inc. is a privately held biotechnology company headquartered in Berkeley, California. The company was founded by the late Drs. Sam Rose and Henry Rapoport to pioneer their highly innovative technology platform for the treatment of cancer. |
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