– CHINA, Shanghai – ShangPharma Corporation is pleased to announce that Dr. Art Taveras will join the company as President and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO). Dr. Taveras brings extensive pharmaceutical leadership and technical expertise in all aspects of Drug Discovery, Chemistry R&D and Pharmaceutical Development having served as a Pharmaceutical and Biotech Executive during his 24-year career. As President and CSO, Dr. Taveras will establish ShangPharma as the premiere Drug Discovery and Development partner of Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology companies worldwide.
Prior to joining ShangPharma, Dr. Taveras was Vice President Small Molecules Drug Discovery, Vice President Chemistry R&D, and Vice President CMC Development at Biogen Idec, leading the discovery and CMC development of neurology, immunology and oncology drug candidates at its multiple sites and partnerships in the U.S. and abroad. Before Biogen Idec, Dr. Taveras was Vice President of Drug Discovery and CMC Development at Alantos Pharmaceuticals, leading the company’s discovery research and building its Diabetes and Matrix Metalloproteinase franchise in the U.S. and Germany before being acquired by Amgen in 2007. Dr. Taveras began his career with Schering-Plough Corporation, where he spent 14 years in Oncology and Immunology Drug Discovery Research, after receiving his Ph.D. degree with Professor A. Schultz at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Dr. Taveras has overseen or contributed to more than 40 drug discovery research and/or CMC development programs in nearly all therapeutic areas including neurology, immunology, oncology, pain, diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, lupus and rheumatology. Multiple drug candidates from these programs have advanced through pre-clinical and/or clinical/CMC Development including the CXCR2-CXCR1-mediated neutrophil migration inhibitor Sch-527123 (Schering-Plough/Merck) for the treatment of COPD (Phase 2), Asthma (Phase 2) and Psoriasis (Phase 2); the dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor ALS-0426 (AMG 222/Amgen-Servier) for Type 2 diabetes (Phase 2); the farnesyl transferase inhibitor Sarasar® (Schering-Plough/Merck) for various cancers (Phase 2,3) and for the treatment of Progeria (Phase 2); the pan-Raf inhibitor BIIB-024 (MLN2480/Takeda) for patients with relapsed and refractory solid tumors as well as in patients with metastatic melanoma (Phase 1); and Biogen-Idec’s recently launched oral MS therapy, Tecfidera®. Dr. Taveras is well-recognized in the pharmaceutical and research community having been listed as an inventor on approximately 100 patents and patent applications, and as an author in nearly 90 scientific publications and presentations.
“We are so pleased that Dr. Taveras has joined the company as President and CSO,” said Michael Hui, Chairman and CEO of ShangPharma Corp. “His extensive leadership, strategic and technical experience at the highest levels in pharmaceutical drug discovery and development will be a great asset to the company as it strives to become the preferred small molecules and biologics drug discovery partner for biopharmaceutical companies. Under Dr. Taveras’ leadership, there will be so much to be looking forward to.”
About ShangPharma
ShangPharma Corp is a leading contract research organization (CRO) providing a broad range of high-quality, integrated services across both drug discovery and drug development to help pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies discover and develop novel drug candidates efficiently. The Company today has a team of nearly 2,000 skilled scientists in 1 million square feet of state-of-the-art research facilities and office space.
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