Dr. Gunnar Weikert, Chairman, CEO and Founder of Inventages Venture Capital Investments Inc, Joins Phytomedics Inc. Board of Directors
Jamesburg, N.J. — April 6, 2006 — Phytomedics Inc., a biopharmaceutical company merging health care and plant biotechnology to discover, develop, manufacture, and commercialize novel botanical therapeutics, announces the appointment of Dr. Gunnar Weikert to its board of directors.
"We are very pleased to have Gunnar join the Phytomedics board of directors," said Dr. Bertold Fridlender, President and CEO of Phytomedics. "His broad experience in the life sciences industry on both the operational and investment sides of the business make for an extremely valuable addition to the Phytomedics team."
Dr. Gunnar Weikert is Chairman, CEO and Founder of Inventages Venture Capital Investments Inc, an international investment group with a focus on cutting-edge life science and health science research and technologies. Inventages manages several funds with $1.3 billion under management in the areas of prevention, food, nutrition, nutraceuticals, lifestyle drugs, pharmaceuticals, diagnostic and green biotech, including the Life Ventures by Nestle fund. Before founding Inventages, Dr. Weikert had more than 10 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. In his last position, he was a senior vice president and global head for life science deals at Bayer AG. While at Bayer, Dr. Weikert oversaw venture investments in technology companies and collaborations representing some of the biggest deals between big-pharma and biotechnology in the late 1990’s. Dr. Weikert holds an M.D., a Ph.D. in the field of metabolism, and an MBA.
"Inventages is a true believer of Phytomedics and its approach to botanical therapeutics," said Dr. Weikert. "Phytomedics has impressed me with its outstanding performance and exceptional management. I’m pleased to be joining the board and am personally looking forward to working closer with the management and playing a more active role in supporting the company."
A core component of Phytomedics initiatives are botanical drugs, as recently defined by the U.S. FDA. Phytomedics sees this as a lucrative pharmaceutical segment that allows for the development of heterogenous plant derived products as ethical drugs in the U.S., and do it for reduced costs and time frames in comparison to new chemical entities (NCEs) or biologics, while retaining strong drug market exclusivity and appealing to expanding consumer desires for natural healthcare alternatives.
About Phytomedics Inc.
Phytomedics Inc. (www.phytomedics.com) uses a broad and innovative proprietary technology platform to discover, develop, manufacture, and commercialize novel, multi-component and multi-functional botanical therapeutics. Through state-of- the-art, proprietary approaches, Phytomedics' botanical therapeutics program reconnects plants and human health at a new level of technological sophistication. The Company has produced a pipeline of lead compounds, several of which are in clinical development, some as far as Phase IIb. Founded by Professor Ilya Raskin, Ph.D., the company’s Chief Scientific Officer, Phytomedics Inc. conducts most of its R&D at the Biotech Center of Rutgers University.
SOURCE: Phytomedics Inc.
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