ISELIN, N.J. — Pharmos Corporation has announced the appointment of Howard Grossberg, M.D. as Vice President of Drug Development responsible for all post-discovery drug development, and of Iris Alroy, Ph.D. as Vice President of Research. Dr. Alroy will head the Company’s research efforts at its Rehovot, Israel facility. The company also announced the promotions of Shimon Amselem, Ph.D., to Vice President Pharmaceutical Development, Herbert Henney III, Pharm.D., to Vice President Clinical and Regulatory Affairs and Alon Michal, to Vice President of Finance.
Haim Aviv, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO, said, “These appointments are a result of our corporate strategy to focus on our research and development strengths, expand our product pipeline, and move drug candidates into clinical development. Our goal is to efficiently develop products with significant market potential and build value for our shareholders. By having the scientific and development team in place, I believe we are better positioned to realize our goals.”
As Vice President of Drug Development, Dr. Grossberg will be responsible for product development of the Company beyond research and discovery through clinical development and regulatory approval, and will report directly to Gad Riesenfeld, Ph.D., President & COO. Dr. Grossberg, who is based in Iselin, N.J., is a board-certified internist, hematologist and oncologist with 20 years of pharmaceutical industry experience. He has served as a clinical consultant to the company since 2001.
Before joining Pharmos, Dr. Grossberg served as Vice President of Clinical Development at several pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including Vitex Technologies and BioTransplant, Inc, and as Chief Medical Officer at Forest Laboratories. He also served as Executive Director of Drug Development and headed international project teams in aromatase inhibition and signal transduction while at Ciba-Geigy, now Novartis. Dr. Grossberg has filed over two dozen New Drug Applications in areas including oncology, endocrine/metabolism, dermatology, gastroenterology and immunology.
Dr. Alroy was most recently Head of Discovery at Proteologics, LTD in Rehovot, Israel. She joined Proteologics in 1991 following postdoctoral and research positions at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. Dr. Alroy earned her PhD from Cornell University in NY.
Dr. Amselem, promoted to Vice President, Pharmaceutical Development, is based in Rehovot and will report to Dr. Grossberg. Dr. Amselem is responsible for all non-clinical drug development activities. Dr. Amselem has been with the Company for 13 years.
Dr. Henney has been named Vice President of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs. Dr. Henney, based in Iselin, N.J., joined Pharmos three years ago as Senior Director of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs and has been involved in a variety of clinical and regulatory activities.
Alon Michal, based in Rehovot, has been promoted to the newly created position of Vice President of Finance. Mr. Michal has been with Pharmos four years, and most recently served as the CFO and Vice President of Operations of the Rehovot facility. Mr. Michal reports to James Meer, Senior Vice President, CFO, Secretary and Treasurer.
Pharmos discovers and develops novel therapeutics to treat a range of indications, in particular neurological and inflammation-based disorders. The Company recently completed a Phase IIa trial for its neuroprotective drug candidate, dexanabinol, from its tricyclic dextrocannabinoid platform technology, as a preventive agent against post-surgical cognitive impairment. Other compounds from Pharmos’ proprietary synthetic cannabinoid library, primarily CB2-selective receptor agonist compounds, are in pre-clinical studies targeting pain, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and other disorders. Clinical development in pain indications is expected to commence during 2005.
