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CritiTech Announces
New Hires
April 20, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LAWRENCE, Kan. - CritiTech announced today that Dr. Joseph
Fix has joined the company as its new Director of Business
and Corporate Development. Dr. Fix has over 25 years experience
in the drug delivery and pharmaceutical industry in addition
to his experience in working in the micro and nanoparticle
pharmaceutical arena. Dr. Fix has held a number of executive
positions in the pharmaceutical industry. Most recently he
was President and COO of Cydex, Inc. Previously, he was EVP
and COO of NanoSystems, Inc., a unit of Elan Corporation.
Before joining Elan, he was President and CTO of Yamanouchi
Pharma Technologies and Associate Director of Biological Sciences
for ALZA Corporation. He began his career with Merck and Company,
advancing to Associate Director, Biopharmaceutics for the
INTERx research division. Dr. Fix holds a Ph.D. in neurophysiology
from the University of Kansas and an MBA from Pepperdine University.
He has held adjunct faculty positions at the University of
Southern California, Purdue University, and the University
of Kansas. He is the author of numerous publications and holds
17 patents in the drug delivery area.
CritiTech also announced today that Dr. John
Vandewalle has accepted the position of Director of Product
Development. Dr. Vandewalle started work as a biochemist and
physician in South Africa, and later entered the pharmaceutical
industry when he joined Merrell Dow in South Africa. He moved
from R&D to marketing in Switzerland for Europe then on
to business management in the US with Merrell Dow. He joined
the executive ranks of Marion Merrell Dow as V.P of International
Business Management and Global Business Planning, and then
became CEO and founder of Teva Marion Partners. John helped
grow the company to over $100 million. He went on to become
President of North and South American Operations for Quintiles.
In addition to Dr. Vandewalles’s work with CritiTech,
he also owns and operates iNTouch Consulting and he is a member
of various business and non-profit boards.
The company opened its laboratory in June,
2004 at the West Lawrence Labs located at 4950 Research Park
Way in Lawrence, Kansas. CritiTech provides critical drug
delivery and development technology for the pharmaceutical
industry through its patented nanoparticle production technology
originally developed at KU. The company also uses its proprietary
technology to coat implantable medical devices such as cardiac
stents. In addition, CritiTech has an internal drug development
program and expects to have its first drug, Nanotax™,
in Phase I clinical trials in 2006. Nanotax™ is a pure
nanoparticle paclitaxel drug for the treatment of ovarian
cancer.
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