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Press Releases
Institute for OneWorld Health Adds Board Member, Senior Staff to Support International Progress in Drug Development ProgramsSan Francisco, CA - September 28, 2004 OneWorld Health today announced that several international experts have joined the organization as part of a strategic expansion of its mission to cure neglected diseases in developing countries. A new member of the Board of Directors, Bernardita Mendez, Ph.D., of Santiago, Chile, and two senior staff members, Dr. Philippe Desjeux of France and Fiona Gibbons of the U.K., bring exceptional experience from a variety of global health areas.
This international expertise is essential as the company moves its product development programs forward, using a combination of advanced technologies and traditional drugs to treat infectious diseases in the developing world.
Bernardita Mendez, Ph.D., was elected to OneWorld Health’s Board of Directors for a two-year term. She is currently president of the Fundación Ciencia para la Vida (Science for Life Foundation) in Santiago, Chile. She founded this private nonprofit organization to stimulate the use of biotechnology in Chile by export-oriented industries with high economic impact. Her strong biotechnology background also includes more than a decade with Chiron Corporation in Emeryville, Calif., as Vice President, Regulatory and Quality Affairs, a corporate officer and a member of the executive committee.
Dr. Mendez also is a full professor at the Universidad Andrés Bello and an associate professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, both in Santiago. She received B.S. and M.S. degrees in biology from the University of Chile. She earned her Ph.D. in cell biology from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in the department of biochemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Mendez has been widely recognized in the field of biological sciences and has been published in journals and publications worldwide.
Dr. Philippe Desjeux, an expert in leishmaniasis based in Divonne, France, has joined OneWorld Health as Senior Program Officer of Disease Control. Dr. Desjeux brings over three decades of experience with leishmaniasis surveillance, control, and prevention.
OneWorld Health anticipates completion of its Phase III clinical trial in India in November, followed by regulatory submission and approval next year for paromomycin, an affordable, safe therapy to treat visceral leishmaniasis (VL). Also known as kala-azar, VL is a parasitic disease that infects 1.5 million of the world’s poorest people and then kills approximately 200,000 each year.
Dr. Desjeux will join the team that will implement a paromomycin pre-launch program in Bihar, India. Prior to joining OneWorld Health, Dr. Desjeux worked as Leishmaniasis Research Coordinator for the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases of the World Health Organization (WHO/TDR). He received a medical doctorate from the University of Paris, and certificates in special studies in gastroenterology and parasitology from the Odeon Faculty of Medicine and a certificate in systematic microbiology from the Pasteur Institute, both in Paris.
Fiona Gibbons, a pharmacist by training and a clinical research specialist with vast experience in the developing world, will serve as Director of International Clinical Operations based in Berkshire, England. Ms. Gibbons will lead the management of clinical trials for OneWorld Health in Africa and Asia, ensuring that international sites used in OneWorld Health studies adhere to the highest standards. Prior to joining the company, Ms. Gibbons was head of clinical operations for Africa and the Middle East at GlaxoSmithKline. In addition, she has conducted clinical research for Bayer and served as a volunteer in South Africa training pharmacy staff.
The Institute for OneWorld Health, the first U.S. nonprofit pharmaceutical company develops new, affordable medicines for infectious diseases that disproportionately affect people in the developing world. OneWorld Health applies its entrepreneurial business model with a staff of experienced pharmaceutical scientists who identifies promising leads and drives development from pre-clinical studies to clinical trials through regulatory approval. The Institute for OneWorld Health, headquartered in San Francisco, Calif., is a tax-exempt 501(c) (3), U.S. corporation (www.oneworldhealth.org).
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