CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- H3 Biomedicine Inc. announced today that Markus Warmuth, M.D., has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective immediately.
"We are thrilled to have Markus lead H3 at this magical moment in time - where promising patient-based drug discovery can be realized within the powerful and novel structure of a biotech company," said Stuart L. Schreiber, Ph.D., H3 Scientific Founder and Founding Director of Chemical Biology at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. "Markus provides the scientific vision of human cancer genetics revealing cancer dependencies and targeting those dependencies, even when they are viewed as challenging, by exploiting advances in modern asymmetric synthesis and chemical biology. He also brings industrial experience in leadership, management and cancer drug development. He is a perfect fit for the intensive, fast-paced environment of H3, where we want to bring hope and health urgently to patients living with cancer."
Dr. Warmuth joined the H3 Biomedicine team in August 2011 as Chief Scientific Officer. Most recently, he had served as Head of Oncology Drug Discovery for the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research (NIBR) in Cambridge (U.S.). In his role at NIBR, he directed broad aspects of the company's global oncology drug discovery portfolio from target discovery to clinical development. Throughout his career as a pharmaceutical industry research executive, Dr. Warmuth has successfully built and shaped oncology research groups and portfolios around the world.
Dr. Warmuth began his career in 1998, when he was appointed as a principal scientist with the "Clinical Cooperation Group Signaling" at the German National Research Center of Environment and Health. He went on to become Director of Kinase Biology at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) in San Diego, where he was responsible for building the company's kinase biology platform and was a member of its Research and Drug Discovery Steering Committee. Dr. Warmuth studied medicine and received his doctorate from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Germany.
"H3 Biomedicine is operating under a new paradigm for oncology drug discovery with an eye on genetic drivers of cancer, called cancer genes. By doing so, H3 Biomedicine hopes to bring new breakthrough drugs to patients who previously have not had many options for treatment of their disease," said Dr. Warmuth. "I am excited to lead our impressive scientific, medical and business team as we harness the therapeutic power that comes from the intersection of synthetic chemistry and genomics insights."
About H3 Biomedicine Inc.
H3 Biomedicine Inc. is a privately held, uniquely structured drug discovery enterprise that is integrating insights from cancer genomics with innovative capabilities in synthetic chemistry and tumor biology to generate novel small-molecule drugs to treat cancer.
With a $200-million research funding commitment from the global human health care company, Eisai, and access to its worldwide development capabilities, H3 Biomedicine is well positioned to address some of the most challenging cancers by delivering on its scientific vision of patient-based, genomics-driven drug discovery. Visit www.H3biomedicine.com for more information.
About Eisai Inc.
Eisai Inc. was established in 1995 and began marketing its first product in the United States in 1997. Since that time, Eisai Inc. has rapidly grown to become a fully integrated pharmaceutical business. Eisai's areas of commercial focus include neurology, gastrointestinal disorders and oncology/critical care. The company serves as the U.S. pharmaceutical operation of Eisai Co., Ltd., a research-based human health care (hhc) company that discovers, develops and markets products throughout the world.
Eisai has a global product creation organization that includes U.S.-based R&D facilities in Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, as well as manufacturing facilities in Maryland and North Carolina. The company's areas of R&D focus include neuroscience; oncology; vascular, inflammatory and immunological reaction; and antibody-based programs. For more information about Eisai, please visit www.eisai.com.