Ambit Biosciences Expands Drug Discovery and Development Teams
San Diego, CA - March 3, 2005 - Ambit Biosciences today announced the appointments of Robert deGroof, Ph.D., to the position of Senior Vice President of Development and Shripad Bhagwat, Ph.D., to the position of Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery. DeGroof will be responsible for advancing Ambit's small molecule drug candidates into clinical trials while Bhagwat will manage the identification and preclinical development of promising leads identified through Ambit's proprietary screening technologies.
"The addition of Bob and Shripad to Ambit's senior management team comes at a key time as we prepare to advance our lead drug candidate, a small molecule neuroprotectant for the treatment of stroke and other CNS disorders, into the clinic by the end of this year," said Scott Salka, Chief Executive Officer of Ambit. "Their expertise will be invaluable as we add to our pipeline of small molecule drug candidates, prepare to file INDs, and design and conduct clinical trials."
DeGroof brings more than 20 years of pharmaceutical industry experience to the Ambit team, including specific expertise in clinical development and regulatory affairs. He was previously Senior Vice President of Scientific Affairs at Alteon Inc., where he built the clinical and regulatory teams and managed the development of the company's lead drug candidate, including the initiation of Phase 2 clinical trials. He has also held drug development and regulatory affairs positions at Johnson & Johnson and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and has served as a strategic consultant for drug development. DeGroof earned his Ph.D. in Physiology and Pharmacology from Duke University and his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Florida.
With 20 years of pharmaceutical research experience, Bhagwat has published more than 50 scientific papers and has been named as an inventor on more than 40 issued and pending patents. He most recently served as Vice President of Drug Discovery at Celgene Corporation, where he managed screening, medicinal chemistry, structure-based drug design, PK/ADME and in vivo pharmacology. He was instrumental in the identification of six drug candidates, two of which are currently in Phase 2 clinical trials, and his focus areas included kinases and cancer and inflammation, among others. Prior to its acquisition by Celgene, Bhagwat served as Director of Medicinal Chemistry for Signal Pharmaceuticals. He has also held drug discovery positions at Abbott Laboratories and Ciba-Geigy Corp. Bhagwat received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and conducted post-doctoral research at Columbia University.
About Ambit Biosciences
Ambit Biosciences is a privately-held biopharmaceutical company developing small molecule neuroprotectants for the treatment of stroke and other CNS disorders and kinase inhibitors for the treatment of cancer and inflammation. Ambit plans to initiate clinical trials for stroke in 2005 and oncology in early 2006. Ambit's proprietary technology, which has been validated through collaborations with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Roche, provides an unprecedented ability to identify, characterize, and quantify protein-small molecule interactions. Ambit has raised a total of nearly $50 million from investors including Perseus-Soros Biopharmaceutical Fund, Forward Ventures, Roche, Avalon Ventures, and GIMV NV.