Former Nuvelo boss hired for Onyx R&D post
Former Nuvelo Inc. CEO Dr. Ted Love will head research and development for Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Love will oversee a growing cache of preclinical and clinical programs as well as regulatory affairs, safety and quality assurance and control at Emeryville-based Onyx (NASDAQ: ONXX). That includes Onyx’s cancer-fighting proteasome inhibitors, which it picked up in the November acquisition of Proteolix Inc.
Proteolix’s proteasome inhibitor, named carfilzomib, is in a Phase IIb trial for relapsed, refractory multiple myeloma.
Dr. Michael Kauffman, who came to Onyx as part of the Proteolix deal, was named chief medical officer, reporting to Love. Kauffman had been interim chief medical officer and was chief medical officer at Proteolix and from 2002 to 2008 was president and CEO of Predix Pharmaceuticals Inc., now EPIX Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Onyx CEO Dr. N. Anthony Coles called Love a “strategic thinker” with a track record of developing successful cancer therapies. At Genentech Inc., for example, he was vice president of product development and regulatory affairs, overseeing development of Herceptin and Rituxan, now two of Genentech’s top-selling drugs.
Love was CEO of San Carlos-based Nuvelo when its blood-thinning drug alfimeprase, a stroke treatment also aimed at improving catheter function, in December 2007 failed a mid-stage trial.
Nuvelo also was developing cancer drugs.
Nuvelo in January 2009 completed a reverse merger with ARCA Biopharma Inc. of Broomfield, Colo., that took ARCA public and gave it access to abot $60 million in Nuvelo cash and securities.
Before joining Nuvelo in 2001, Love was senior vice president of development at Theravance Inc. and spent six years in various medical affairs and product development jobs at Genentech.
Love is on the boards of ARCA, Affymax Inc. and Santarus Inc. as well as the oversight committee of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state’s stem cell research funding agency.
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