MADISON, Wis--(BUSINESS WIRE)--FluGen Inc. announced today that C. Boyd Clarke has joined the Company as Executive Chairman effective immediately. Mr. Clarke will replace Dr. Dan Stinchcomb, Chief Scientific Officer at the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI) in Seattle, Washington. Dr. Stinchcomb will remain on the board of directors as an independent member.
Mr. Clarke’s original training in the pharmaceutical and vaccine industry was received at Merck and Company, where he held several positions, including Vice President of the Merck Vaccine Division and the founding President of Pasteur-Merieux MSD, a European joint venture that commercialized vaccines in the European Union. Since leaving Merck in 1996, his career has focused on leading and advising smaller developmental biotechnology and vaccine companies including Aviron, the developer of FluMist™, which he sold to MedImmune in 2001. In total Mr. Clarke has been responsible for $2.3 billion in vaccine and biotechnology mergers.
"Boyd brings to FluGen a wealth of vaccine leadership experience from both private and public companies and at a particularly important time for the Company," said Dr. Paul Weiss, Managing Director at Venture Investors, and FluGen Investor. "His reputation for generating value and transforming it into corporate transactions is well established. This is the perfect time for Boyd to take on this role.”
In addition to serving as President and CEO of Aviron, Mr. Clarke also served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Neose Technologies, a protein therapeutics company and U.S. Bioscience, a cancer company. Mr. Clarke has served as Chairman of the Board of QLT, an ocular company, and Mersana Therapeutics, an oncology company, and as Executive Chairman of LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals, a vaccine company, where he oversaw the sale of the company to Takeda Pharmaceuticals in 2012. In these capacities, he developed significant expertise in the challenges of small company leadership, strategic management, business development, and mergers and acquisitions.
“I am excited to work with the investment syndicate including WARF, Venture Investors, SWIB and Knox, and to help the team in the development our flu vaccine, RedeeFlu™, as it moves into the next round of clinical studies. We believe it to be a novel flu vaccine potentially providing broader protection than what is currently available. We will know much more in the coming months,” said Mr. Clarke.
About FluGen, Inc.
FluGen, Inc. is a clinical stage vaccine company focused on improving the breadth and effectiveness of influenza vaccines. The Company’s technology comes from the laboratory of Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. It’s lead product candidate, RedeeFlu™ is a universal flu vaccine which is based on the knowledge that a real or “wild-type” flu infection prevents people from being infected in subsequent years. RedeeFlu™ has demonstrated a robust immunology profile that works on multiple effector systems and appears to trick the body into believing it has been infected without flu symptoms. RedeeFlu™ will enter Phase 2 clinical trials in 2018.
For more information about FluGen, Inc., please visit http://www.FluGen.com/
For more information about RedeeFlu™ please visit http://flugen.com/redee-flu/
