Winston-Salem, NC Sep 22, 2003
Targacept, Inc. today announced the addition of former Sanofi-Synthelabo executive Jeffrey P. Brennan as Vice President, Business and Commercial Development.
Mr. Brennan, 46, has more than 20 years of pharmaceutical industry experience, and has held senior management positions at Poythress Laboratories, Inc., Bock Pharmacal Company, and, most recently, Sanofi-Synthelabo, Inc., from 1996-2003. Throughout his career, Mr. Brennan has demonstrated success in both strategic development and key operations roles. He has developed and expanded the capability and capacity of sales and marketing teams, strategic market research and business analysis divisions, product life cycle management and business development departments. Mr. Brennan has completed over 30 business development deals and has been involved in more than 25 product launches in his career. As a member of Sanofi’s Executive Management team, he played an instrumental role in helping the company achieve a nearly 10-fold increase in sales, profits, sales force and headquarter expansion over the past six years.
“Jeff brings to the Targacept executive management team a significant depth and breadth of knowledge and experience in the areas of business development, product commercialization, and strategic corporate development,” said J. Donald deBethizy, Ph.D., President and CEO of Targacept. “He has many noteworthy achievements in business and corporate development. His appointment further strengthens Targacept’s ability to rapidly develop and commercialize its unparalleled pipeline of first-in-class drugs for the central nervous system by implementing product strategies and business partnerships within the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. This addition completes the staffing of our executive team at Targacept.”
Mr. Brennan received a B.S. in Marketing from Central Connecticut University. He has been a member of the Licensing Executive Society (LES) since 1991 and is a former Board member of the Health Care Committee for the LES. He is currently a member of the American Marketing Association.
Targacept, Inc. is a leading central nervous system-focused biopharmaceutical company engaged in the design, discovery and development of a new class of drugs to treat a broad spectrum of diseases, including, among others, memory disorders and dementia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ulcerative colitis, pain and Alzheimer’s disease. The company's drug candidates selectively modulate an underexploited class of molecular targets involved in regulating central nervous system (CNS) activity, known as neuronal nicotinic receptors (NNRs), and its NNR expertise, together with Pentad™, its powerful proprietary in-silico drug discovery engine, facilitate highly-targeted drug design and development. With an unparalleled portfolio of candidates for first-in-class therapeutics that includes three Phase II compounds and one Phase I compound, decades of management experience and an extensive patent estate, Targacept is pioneering the next generation of CNS therapeutics.
Targacept has one product on the market, Inversine®, for the management of moderately severe to severe essential hypertension and in uncomplicated cases of malignant hypertension. The company has strategic alliances with Aventis Pharmaceuticals of Strasbourg, France and Dr. Falk Pharma of Freiburg, Germany. Targacept completed a second round financing of $60 million earlier this year. It is located in the new Piedmont Triad Research Park in downtown Winston-Salem.