Anadys Pharmaceuticals Augments Management Team and Board of Directors

SAN DIEGO, Jan. 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ANDS) today announced the following additions and changes to its management team and Board of Directors:

• Kevin L. Eastwood has joined Anadys as Senior Vice President, Corporate Development
• James Appleman, Ph.D. has been promoted to Senior Vice President, Research and Chief Scientific Officer
• James L. Freddo, M.D., Anadys' Senior Vice President, Drug Development and Chief Medical Officer, has been appointed to the Company's Board of Directors
• Stelios Papadopoulos, Ph.D. has been named Chairman of the Board

"I am delighted with the addition of Kevin Eastwood to our management team and the additional responsibilities for Drs. Appleman, Freddo and Papadopoulos," said Steve Worland, Ph.D., Anadys' President and CEO.  "With these changes in place, we are well-positioned to execute our corporate objectives in the coming year."

Mr. Eastwood, who joins Anadys from Ambrx, Inc., will be responsible for the Company's business development and strategic planning activities, reporting to Steve Worland, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer.  Mr. Eastwood has held a number of prior business development positions, including the senior corporate development positions at Ambrx, Inc. and Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.  In these positions he was responsible for executing business transactions with a number of leading biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, Inc., Merck and Co., Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, and Gilead Sciences, Inc.  Mr. Eastwood began his pharmaceuticals career in sales and marketing at Marion Laboratories and transitioned to business development while at Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., now a part of Pfizer.  He holds a B.S. in Biology from Missouri State University.  

Dr. Appleman, who has been with Anadys since 2001 in positions of increasing responsibility, most recently as Senior Vice President, Research, played pivotal roles in the invention and characterization of the Company's drug development candidates ANA598 and ANA773.  Dr. Appleman will continue to be responsible for non-clinical aspects of both development programs.  Dr. Appleman was a faculty member at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and subsequently held positions at Gensia, Inc. and Metabasis Therapeutics, Inc. prior to joining Anadys.  He received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Oklahoma State University and completed his postdoctoral training at Dartmouth Medical School.

Dr. Freddo joined Anadys in 2006 as Chief Medical Officer to build out the Company's clinical and regulatory functions and was named Senior Vice President of Drug Development in 2008.  Under his leadership both ANA598 and ANA773 entered clinical development and advanced to their current status.   Dr. Freddo joined Anadys from Pfizer, Inc. where he was most recently Vice President, Clinical Site Head and Development Site Head, La Jolla, and led the team responsible for the registration of Sutent®.  Prior to Pfizer, Dr. Freddo held a number of drug development positions at Wyeth-Ayerst.  Dr. Freddo serves as a member of the Board of Directors for InfuSystems Holdings, Inc.  Dr. Freddo received his M.D. and completed his fellowship training at the University of North Carolina and served on the faculty of the UCSD Medical Center prior to joining industry.

Dr. Papadopoulos assumes the role of Chairman of the Board from Steven H. Holtzman, who has resigned from the Board of Directors in association with his recent appointment as Executive Vice President, Corporate Development at Biogen Idec Inc.  Dr. Papadopoulos, who is a co-founder of Anadys and has been a member of the Board since 2000, has more than 25 years experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries as an investment banker, Board member and company founder and investor.  Dr. Papadopoulos is a Board member of several companies, including Biogen Idec and Exelixis, Inc., where he is Chairman.  

Dr. Papadopoulos added, "On behalf of all of us at Anadys I would like to thank Steve Holtzman for his years of service as a member as well as for serving as Chairman of our Board.  We will miss his unique insights and wise counsel, but we wish him well in his new endeavor at Biogen Idec."

About Anadys

Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to improving patient care by developing novel medicines for the treatment of hepatitis C.  The Company believes hepatitis C represents a large unmet medical need in which meaningful improvements in treatment outcomes may be attainable with the introduction of new medicines.  Anadys has initiated a Phase IIb study of ANA598, the Company's DAA, added to current standard of care for the treatment of hepatitis C.  The Company is also preparing to resume clinical development of ANA773, the Company's oral, small-molecule inducer of endogenous interferons that acts via the Toll like receptor 7, or TLR7, pathway in hepatitis C.

Safe Harbor Statement

Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical in nature constitute "forward-looking statements."  Such statements include, but are not limited to, references to Anadys' ability to execute its corporate objectives in the coming year.  Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause Anadys' actual results to be materially different from historical results or from any results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.  For example, the results of preclinical and early clinical studies may not be predictive of future results, and Anadys cannot provide any assurances that ANA598 or ANA773 will not have unforeseen safety issues, will have favorable results in ongoing or future clinical trials or will receive regulatory approval. In addition, Anadys' results may be affected by competition from other biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, its effectiveness at managing its financial resources, its ability to enter into transactions around its product candidates, its ability to successfully develop and market products, difficulties or delays in its non-clinical studies or clinical trials, difficulties or delays in manufacturing its clinical trials materials, the scope and validity of patent protection for its products, regulatory developments and its ability to obtain additional funding to support its operations.  Risk factors that may cause actual results to differ are more fully discussed in Anadys' SEC filings, including Anadys' Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2010.  All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.  Anadys is providing this information as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this document as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc.