CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVEO) today announced the appointment of industry veteran Henri A. Termeer, outgoing chairman, president and chief executive officer of Genzyme Corporation, to its Board of Directors.
"We are delighted that Henri will be joining our Board of Directors," said Tuan Ha-Ngoc, president and chief executive officer of AVEO. "Henri's experience building Genzyme into a leading global biotechnology company with significant commercial prowess will be extremely beneficial as we begin commercial planning activities associated with tivozanib, our triple VEGF receptor inhibitor. We believe that Henri's insight and extensive experience will be a significant asset for this next stage of the company."
In addition, AVEO announced that directors Douglas Cole, M.D., general partner at Flagship Ventures, and Russell Hirsch, M.D., Ph.D., managing director of Prospect Venture Partners, will not stand for re-election at AVEO's 2011 Annual Meeting of Stockholders in June.
"We are very pleased to welcome Henri to our Board of Directors and extend our gratitude to Doug and Russell for their long-term service and dedication to AVEO," said Anthony Evnin, Ph.D., Chairman of AVEO's Board of Directors and a partner at Venrock. "These changes are the natural evolution of the Board's composition as AVEO moves toward its goal of becoming a fully integrated cancer therapeutics company, delivering value to shareholders, the medical oncology community and patients."
Mr. Termeer has served as president and a director of Genzyme Corporation since 1983, its chief executive officer since 1985 and as Chairman of its Board since 1988. In 2008, he was appointed to Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick's Council of Economic Advisors, and he is a co-chair of the Leadership Council of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Collaborative. Mr. Termeer is also Chairman Emeritus of the New England Healthcare Institute, a nonprofit, applied research health policy organization he was instrumental in founding. He served on the Board of Directors of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. Mr. Termeer is also Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's Board of Directors, a Board member of ABIOMED Inc., and a Board member of Massachusetts Institute of Technology Corporation. He is a director of Massachusetts General Hospital, a Board member of Partners HealthCare and a member of the Board of Fellows of Harvard Medical School.
Mr. Termeer commented, "I am honored to join AVEO's Board of Directors and work closely with this outstanding management and Board team. I believe that AVEO's extraordinary science and novel cancer therapies have tremendous potential and I am thrilled to contribute to the goal of bringing the company's innovative product candidates to market and offering meaningful new treatments to patients."
About AVEO
AVEO Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AVEO) is a cancer therapeutics company committed to discovering, developing and commercializing targeted therapies to impact patients' lives. The company's lead product candidate, tivozanib, is currently being investigated in a global, randomized Phase 3 clinical trial called TIVO-1 comparing tivozanib to sorafenib in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma, as well as additional clinical studies in other solid tumor types. AVEO's second most advanced product candidate, ficlatuzumab (AV-299), is a potent, functional anti-HGF/c-MET pathway antibody that is currently in Phase 2 clinical development. AVEO's proprietary Human Response PlatformTM is designed to offer the company a unique advantage in cancer drug development and has provided a discovery engine for multiple therapeutic targets. This approach has resulted in a promising pipeline of monoclonal antibodies against novel targets including HGF, ErbB3, RON, Notch and FGFR. For more information, please visit the company's website at www.aveopharma.com.