Arrowhead Subsidiary, Insert Therapeutics, Taps New CEO

PharmaManufacturing.com
10/15/2006

Arrowhead Research Corp., announced Oct. 12 that Edward Jacobs will be appointed chief executive officer and president of its majority-owned subsidiary, Insert Therapeutics, on Jan. 1, 2007. Until then, Jacobs will serve as a consultant to Insert.

"Ed brings more than 20 years of executive level pharma and biotech experience, with particular emphasis in the oncology space, as well as strategic planning and marketing," said R. Bruce Stewart, Arrowhead's chairman. "He has successfully led several biotech companies to acquisition by major pharmaceutical companies and secured substantial collaborations and licensing deals. Now that Insert's anti-cancer drug candidate is in the clinic, we felt it was time to bring an individual with Ed's background and skills to give Insert's technology the visibility it merits."

"Insert's technology represents a major step forward in delivery of oncologic agents to cancer patients," said Jacobs. "IT-101 and Insert's other pipeline candidates — all of which take advantage of this proprietary enabling delivery technology — signal a major change in how the performance of current and next generation pharmaceutical agents can be further enhanced for the benefit of patients. I am very excited to have been selected to direct this effort."

Jacobs is currently the chief operating officer of SuperGen. During the next three months, Jacobs will be winding down his affairs with SuperGen while coming up to speed with Insert. During his seven-year tenure at SuperGen, Jacobs served in a number of positions, which culminated with him being named as chief operating officer. Prior to SuperGen, Jacobs served as president and chief executive officer of ETEX, a Cambridge, Mass.-based biomaterials and drug-delivery company that was acquired by Medtronics. Also prior to SuperGen, Jacobs served as senior vice president, Commercial Operations at Sequus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which was acquired by Alza for an aggregate of $800 million. Prior to his association with Sequus, Jacobs served in a variety of senior management positions with pharmaceutical companies, including as CEO of Trilex (acquired by Titan Pharmaceuticals), CEO of Transplant Therapeutics Inc., vice president and general manager of Syncor International, vice president of NeoRx Corp. and business director of Pharmacia (a/k/a Adria Labs, Inc.).

John Petrovich, Insert's current CEO, will continue to head up Calando Pharmaceuticals, another of Arrowhead's majority owned subsidiaries. He will also serve at Insert in an advisory role after Jacobs joins Insert full time in Jan. 2007. "I cannot imagine anyone better suited than Ed to whom we could hand over the reins at Insert," said Petrovich. "I look forward to working with him as IT-101 moves further into clinical trials and Insert's other pipeline candidates move toward the clinic."

About Arrowhead Research Corp.

Arrowhead Research Corp. (www.arrowhead.com) is a publicly-traded nanotechnology company commercializing new technologies in the areas of life sciences, electronics, and energy. Arrowhead is building value for shareholders through the progress of majority owned subsidiaries founded on nanotechnologies originally developed at universities. The company works closely with universities to source early stage deals and to generate rights to intellectual property covering promising new nanotechnologies. Currently, Arrowhead has four subsidiaries commercializing nanotech products and applications, including anti-cancer drugs, RNAi therapeutics, carbon-based electronics and compound semiconductor materials.

About Insert Therapeutics, Inc.

Insert Therapeutics, Inc., a majority-owned subsidiary of Arrowhead Research Corp., is using its proprietary, nano-engineered, polymeric delivery system, Cyclosert, to design, develop and commercialize drug-delivery-enhanced small-molecule therapeutics and nucleic acids. Cyclosert uses cyclodextrins as building blocks to create an entirely new class of biocompatible materials — linear cyclodextrin-containing polymers that are nontoxic and nonimmunogenic at therapeutic doses. The company is pursuing this goal through its internal research and development, and also through collaborations and partnerships with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.