Dr. Allen Chao, Founder & Former CEO of Watson Pharmaceuticals, Joins NexBio Board of Directors

SAN DIEGO, Jan. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- NexBio, Inc. announced today the appointment of Allen Chao, Ph.D., Founder, Chairman and former CEO of Watson Pharmaceuticals, to its Board of Directors as an independent director.

Dr. Allen Chao is Chairman and Managing Partner, Newport Healthcare Advisors, LLC.  He is also the Founder and former Chairman of Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and served as Chief Executive Officer from August 1985 to September 2007.   Dr. Chao received a Ph.D. in industrial and physical pharmacy from Purdue University in 1973.   In May of 2000, he received the degree of Honorable Doctor of Science from Purdue University in recognition of his leadership and vision for the production and marketing of pharmaceutical products for human healthcare.  During the last 25 years, Dr. Chao led Watson's growth through internal R&D, licensing and acquisitions of pharmaceutical products and technologies, as well as mergers and acquisition activities.  Dr. Chao has had strong business development, strategic planning and execution, and financial investment and operational management experience in the pharmaceutical industry.  Under Dr. Chao's leadership, Watson grew into the third largest supplier of generic pharmaceutical products in the U.S., employing approximately 6000 employees worldwide.  Watson's 2007 annual revenue, when Dr. Chao left his CEO post, was approximately $2.5 billion. As a philanthropist, Dr. Chao has contributed to the establishment of the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and the H.H. Chao Comprehensive Digestive Disease Center at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center, Irvine, California campus.  In 2005, Dr. Chao contributed to the establishment of The Chao Center for Industrial Pharmacy, located in the Purdue Research Park in Indiana, to provide leadership in pharmaceutical education, development and manufacturing.  

"We are very excited to have Allen on board, and we greatly value Allen's unparalleled record of entrepreneurship and company-building as one of the most successful biopharmaceutical executives in the world," said Mang Yu, Ph.D., NexBio's Chairman and CEO. "Allen is a visionary pharmaceutical executive who is especially skillful in commercialization of biopharmaceutical products. We know his wisdom, commercial focus and vision will be invaluable as NexBio grows into a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company.  We look forward to his guidance on all strategically important issues in growing the company."

"I am equally excited to join NexBio's Board of Directors," said Dr. Chao. "I have witnessed the fast growth of NexBio from a startup into a company in Phase II clinical development for its lead product for influenza-like-illness.  I am particularly impressed by NexBio's platform technologies which can be further advanced to address important issues of formulation and delivery of all classes of drugs, including siRNA.  It will be my pleasure to work with such an innovative and energetic leadership team by lending my three decades of industrial experience."

ABOUT NEXBIO

NexBio, Inc. is a privately held clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company located in San Diego.  NexBio's mission is to save lives and to improve the quality of life by creating and commercializing novel, broad-spectrum biopharmaceuticals to prevent and treat current and emerging life-threatening diseases.  DAS181 (Fludase®*) is an investigational drug undergoing phase II clinical development, directed to the treatment and prophylaxis of influenza-like illness caused by any and all strains of influenza, including pandemic strains, and parainfluenza (which may cause serious respiratory illness similar to influenza and for which there is no approved vaccine or therapeutic).   DAS181 is a host-targeted inhaled recombinant fusion protein that inactivates viral receptors on the cells of the human respiratory tract, thereby preventing and treating viral infection.  The DAS181 development program is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, under BAA Contract HHSN266200600015C and grant U01-AI070281. Viradin™, invented and developed by NexBio, is a parenteral protein at lead optimization stage, directed to the treatment of viral hemorrhagic fevers and bacterial biothreat sepsis.  TOSAP® is a technology invented and developed by NexBio and is used to formulate DAS181 for inhalation, as well as to make microparticles from virtually any type of molecule.  TOSAP® is offered for the formulation of compounds of partners, under license.  SAFRAN™ is a technology invented and developed by NexBio, used to formulate siRNA for parenteral delivery.

For more information about NexBio, Inc., please visit http://www.nexbio.com

* FDA has yet to approve the name Fludase.

DISCLOSURE NOTICE:

This release contains forward-looking information about the research and development program of NexBio and the potential efficacy of product candidates that might result from programs that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Such risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development activities; decisions by regulatory authorities regarding whether and when to permit the clinical investigation of or approve any drug applications that may result from the programs as well as their decisions regarding labeling and other matters that could affect the commercial potential of product candidates that may result from the program; and competitive developments.

SOURCE NexBio, Inc.