NitroMed chief exec jumps to Archemix

Last year Archemix was in talks to merge with NitroMed, but that deal fizzled out. Now it appears that Archemix will have to make do with NitroMed's CEO.

The Cambridge, MA-based Archemix says that NitroMed CEO Ken Bate, an experienced biotech player who's well known in the Bay State biotech cluster, is joining the company as president and CEO. Archemix interim CEO, Duncan Higgons, has accepted another chief executive position at an unnamed biotech.

Bate's resume includes stints at Cambridge, MA-based Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Boston-based Biogen. He is a founding partner of JSB Partners and sits on the board of directors at Cubist Pharmaceuticals and AVEO Pharmaceuticals. He'll oversee Archemix's development work involving aptamer therapeutics.

NitroMed ended up spurning Archemix at the end of January as it opted for a $36 million deal with Deerfield Capital.

- check out the release
- read the report from the Boston Business Journal

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