Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Mersana Therapeutics taps Lowinger as chief scientific officer

Mersana Therapeutics Inc. has named Timothy B. Lowinger as new chief scientific officer at the Cambridge-based nanotech life sciences company.

Lowinger most recently served as vice president of chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences at Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Vancouver, Canada, where he managed a team focused on developing polymer-based pharmaceutical products.

From 1993 to 2007, Lowinger held a number of positions at Bayer Pharmaceuticals in the United States, Germany and Japan. He led the team that discovered and advanced Nexavar, an anti-cancer agent that is approved for indications including renal and hepatocellular cancer, with Phase III studies under way in non small-cell lung and other cancers.

Mersana launched a Phase I trial of its anti-cancer agent XMT-1001 in patients with solid tumors in May 2007.

Privately held Mersana is a venture-backed company, using its proprietary nanotechnology platform to transform existing and experimental anti-cancer agents into new, patentable drugs with better pharmaceutical properties.