FREMONT, Calif., July 13, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zosano Pharma Corporation (NASDAQ:ZSAN) announced today important leadership additions with the hiring of Donald Kellerman, Pharm.D. as Vice President, Clinical Development; David Zhang, Ph.D. as Executive Director, Biostatistics and Data Management; and Jacquie Mardell as Senior Director, Clinical Operations.
"We are thrilled Don, David and Jacquie are joining Zosano. They are great additions to our clinical and regulatory teams as we prepare to significantly advance our clinical-stage programs for the treatment of osteoporosis, hypoglycemia and migraine," said Zosano's Chief Medical Officer Thorsten von Stein, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Donald Kellerman most recently served as Senior Vice President of Clinical Development & Regulatory Affairs at Tonix Pharmaceuticals. Previously, Dr. Kellerman served as Senior Vice President of Clinical Development & Medical Affairs at MAP Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (acquired by Allergan, Inc.) for five years. Dr. Kellerman also has held the position of Senior Vice President of Development at Inspire Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he was responsible for all aspects of drug development, including clinical research, regulatory affairs, project management and biostatistics. He also led groups responsible for running several clinical programs in the respiratory, ophthalmology and cardiovascular areas. In addition, Dr. Kellerman has served in various clinical and project leadership positions at Glaxo Wellcome, Sepracor, Inc., and E.R. Squibb and Sons, Inc. He has more than 25 years of experience in the development of prescription pharmaceuticals and has lead- or co-authored more than 80 publications. Dr. Kellerman holds Doctor of Pharmacy and Bachelor of Science degrees from the College of Pharmacy at the University of Minnesota.
Dr. David Zhang joins Zosano from Genentech, a member of the Roche Group. During his 13-year career at Genentech, Dr. Zhang worked in clinical development across all phases in multiple therapeutic areas and geographic regions. Prior to joining Genentech, Dr. Zhang worked at Eli Lilly and Company and at Abbott Laboratories. His industry experience spans from biometrics, clinical development strategies, regulatory interactions and submissions, and clinical trial innovations to leading high-performing teams. Dr. Zhang received his Ph.D. in Biostatistics from UCLA and post-doctoral training from Columbia University. He also holds an executive M.B.A. from Indiana University.
Jacquie Mardell joins Zosano after serving for more than a year as clinical operations consultant for Zosano. Ms. Mardell has previously held clinical operations director positions at Metabolex (now Cymabay), Corcept Therapeutics, Neuromed Pharmaceuticals, Roche and Syntex, in a wide variety of therapeutic areas, including osteoporosis, diabetes, cortisol-related psychiatric illness, HIV and CMV infection. Ms. Mardell was also a core instructor in the UC Santa Cruz graduate certificate program in clinical trials design and management for 15 years.
About Zosano Pharma
Zosano Pharma Corporation is a clinical-stage specialty pharmaceutical company that has developed a proprietary transdermal microneedle patch system to deliver drug formulations through the skin for the treatment of a variety of indications. Zosano Pharma's microneedle patch system offers rapid onset, consistent drug delivery, improved ease of use and room-temperature stability, benefits that the company believes often are unavailable using oral formulations or injections. Zosano Pharma's microneedle patch system has the potential to deliver numerous medications for a wide variety of indications in commercially attractive markets. It has been tested in more than 400 patients with over 30,000 patches successfully applied to humans in Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical studies. Learn more at www.zosanopharma.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding expected clinical activities and other future events. Readers are urged to consider statements that include the words "may," "will," "would," "could," "should," "might," "believes," "estimates," "projects," "potential," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "intends," "continues," "forecast," "designed," "goal," "unaudited," "approximately" or the negative of those words or other comparable words to be uncertain and forward-looking. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict and actual outcomes may differ materially. These include risks and uncertainties, without limitation, associated with the process of discovering, developing and commercializing products that are safe and effective for use as human therapeutics, risks inherent in the effort to build a business around such products and other risks and uncertainties described under the heading "Risk Factors" in Zosano Pharma Corporation's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014 filed with Securities and Exchange Commission on March 26, 2015. Although the company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot in any way guarantee that the future results, level of activity, performance or events and circumstances reflected in forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur. All forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to Zosano Pharma and Zosano Pharma assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements.