NEW HAVEN, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rib-X Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that the Company has appointed Matthew A. Wikler, M.D. as Chief Development Officer, effective April 30, 2012. Dr. Wikler will assume a strategic leadership role in the future clinical development of the Company’s product candidates, including implementing the Phase 3 program for delafloxacin, which successfully completed a Phase 2b clinical trial in acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections in December of 2011.
“With numerous drug approvals and successful product launches under his belt and extensive experience in antibiotic drug development at both small and large companies, Dr. Wikler is an excellent complement to an already exceptional team here at Rib-X,” said Mark Leuchtenberger, President and Chief Executive Officer of Rib-X Pharmaceuticals. “We look forward to working with him as we advance delafloxacin into Phase 3 and further the development of other product candidates and programs in our pipeline.”
Dr. Wikler brings more than 30 years of drug development experience, primarily in the field of infectious diseases, to Rib-X. Over the course of his career, he has played a major role in the clinical development and subsequent approval of 19 antimicrobial drugs and vaccines. Prior to joining Rib-X, Dr. Wikler served as President and Chief Executive Officer of IASO Pharma Inc., a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on the development of antibacterial and antifungal therapeutics. He also held senior level positions at the Institute for One World Health, Mpex Pharmaceuticals, Peninsula Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Johnson & Johnson), ViroPharma, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical (division of Johnson & Johnson), Bio-Pharm Clinical Services (acquired by Omnicare), Burroughs Wellcome, and Smith Kline & French/Smith Kline Beecham. Dr. Wikler also spent two years at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, serving as Deputy Director, Division of Anti-Infective Drug Products for a portion of that time. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute and previously served as the Chairman of the Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Subcommittee. Dr. Wikler earned a B.A. from Franklin and Marshall College, an M.D. degree from Temple University, completed his Infectious Diseases Fellowship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and is a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. He received an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.
About Rib-X Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Rib-X Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company developing new antibiotics to provide superior coverage, safety and convenience for the treatment of serious and life-threatening infections. The Company's proprietary drug discovery platform provides an atomic-level, three-dimensional understanding of interactions between drug candidates and their bacterial targets and enables design of antibiotics with enhanced characteristics. Rib-X has two antibiotic candidates in clinical development. Delafloxacin is an enhanced spectrum IV/oral antibiotic intended for use as first-line monotherapy primarily in hospitals and recently completed a Phase 2b clinical trial for the treatment of acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections. Radezolid is a next-generation IV/oral oxazolidinone designed to be a potent antibiotic with a safety profile permitting long-term treatment of resistant infections. The Company's pipeline also includes its preclinical RX-04 program, partnered with Sanofi, S.A., and other discovery stage anti-infective programs. www.rib-x.com