Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Paul Howes made CEO of Inotek

By Mass High Tech Staff

Beverly drug developer Inotek Pharmaceuticals Corp. has named Paul G. Howes as director, president and CEO of the company.

Howes joins Inotek following his previous position as president of the Americas region for Bausch & Lomb, where he managed pharmaceuticals, surgical and vision care divisions in both North America and South America. Prior to that role, Howes served as president and CEO of Dupont Merck Pharmaceuticals Inc., president of Merck Frosst Canada Inc., executive director of Hospital Marketing and vice president, sales and marketing at Specialty Products.

Howes fills the shoes of former Inotek CEO Andrew Salzman, who resigned with plans to pursue his career in Israel, where Inotek announced in April plans to sell its drug plant. Inotek director Michael Loberg was appointed interim CEO before the hiring of Howes.

Also in April, Inotek announced several personnel changes: Rudolf Baumgartner, former vice president of clinical research at Marlborough drug-maker Sepracor Inc., was named chief medical officer; William McVicar, for vice president of product development at Sepracor, was hired as executive vice president of pharmaceutical development; and James Ham, former vice president of Lexington biotech firm NitroMed Inc., is the company’s new CFO.

The company announced in June that it had begun Phase 1 trials to treat glaucoma with its Adenosine 1 agonist, INO-8875. The trial was expected to test INO-8875’s ability to lower intraocular pressure, which tends to be higher in glaucoma patients and can lead to optic nerve damage and potential blindness.

Privately held Inotek targets research on cell injury, cell survival and inflammation.