Resverlogix names clinical affairs chief

Calgary, AB – March 25, 2004 – Resverlogix says it has appointed Jan O Johansson, MD, PhD, as senior vice president of clinical affairs.

Dr Johansson has more than 16 years of experience as a practicing physician in internal medicine, cardiology and preventative medicine and 14 years of experience in academic medicine including work in atherosclerosis studies, drug intervention trials, multi-center, multi-international trials.

For the past nine years, he has served in vice president positions with various North America-based biotechnology companies, conducting clinical trials and preparing regulatory documents. He earned his MD and PhD at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, completing his doctorate in 1991 on high density lipoproteins and became associate professor at the Karolinska Hospital. Dr Johansson has published more than 50 peer-reviewed scientific articles.

“I’m fascinated by the opportunities provided by Resverlogix technologies in the area of identifying novel compounds and the treatment of atherosclerosis, by affecting HDL and reverse cholesterol transport,” he says. “It is recognized that therapies affecting HDL and atherosclerosis in the arterial wall will present the new opportunity in the $50 billion plus cardiovascular market. Resverlogix is well positioned to be a key player in that market.”

Dr Johansson’s was formerly co-founder, VP, clinical affairs, and senior clinical research fellow of Esperion Therapeutics. Esperion was recently purchased by Pfizer.

“Dr Johansson brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to Resverlogix and will add significant value to our development program to help move Resverlogix into investigational new drug (IND) trials under his experienced guidance”, says Don McCaffrey, president and CEO of Resverlogix.

Resverlogix’s cholesterol lowering technology involves the use of small molecules to increase HDL by regulating the abundance of the primary protein component of HDL, Apolipoprotein A1. Resverlogix also has technology that enables it to identify numerous natural and synthetic compounds which have the ability to raise the abundance of HDL in the blood. Dr Johansson’s track record of advancing compounds through atherosclerosis regression studies and HDL clinical and metabolic studies will progress Resverlogix into the final non-licensed stage of its business plan.