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Affinium Pharmaceuticals Welcomes Dr. Barry Hafkin As Chief Medical Officer

Posted on: Monday, 2 April 2007, 12:00 CDT

Affinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held developer of a novel class of highly potent oral antibacterial therapeutics announces the addition of Dr. Barry Hafkin as its Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Hafkin will lead Affinium's clinical development program and establish Affinium's new regulatory team based in Austin Texas.

An accomplished pharmaceutical executive, Dr. Hafkin brings more than 16 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries to Affinium. As Senior Director of Antibacterial Development and later the therapeutic area leader at Pharmacia, Dr. Hafkin led the successful global development and registration of Zyvox. Zyvox is an antibiotic specifically designed to address some of the most important problems in treating multiple drug resistant bacterial infections. The product now marketed by Pfizer has been widely embraced by the medical communities throughout the world; sales for Zyvox are estimated to be $900 million and growing by 30% per year.

"I am very excited to be leading the development team at Affinium as we prepare our clinical candidate for its Phase 1 trial this year," commented Dr. Hafkin. "The increasing prevalence of staphylococcal infections such as methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) in hospitals and the community means that there is an urgent need for new classes of potent antibiotics like those being developed at Affinium."

"We are very pleased to have Dr. Hafkin join Affinium as the company enters its next phase of drug development," noted Dr. Stuart Collinson, Chairman of the Board of Directors. "Dr. Hafkin's experience at developing new oral and intravenous antibiotics makes him uniquely qualified to lead Affinium's clinical program."

A graduate of the University of Texas Medical School at San Antonio, Texas, Dr. Hafkin completed his Postdoctoral Fellow in Infectious Disease at Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford Medical School, Palo Alto, California. Prior to coming to Affinium Dr. Hafkin served as President and CEO of Cumbre Pharmaceuticals, Inc, of Dallas, Texas, and prior to that as Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Advancis Pharmaceutical Corporation, and lead the Boerhinger Ingelheim Departments of Virology and Immunology.

About Affinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Affinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel anti-infective medicines stemming from the bacterial fatty acid synthesis (FAS) II pathway. Affinium's lead clinical development compound is the most potent small molecule antibiotic in development for both oral and intravenous treatment of staphylococcal infections including drug-resistant MRSA. This clinical development candidate is scheduled for Phase I trials in 2007. Additionally, Affinium uses its library of ~1,700 proprietary compounds and its knowledge of fatty acid biosynthesis enzymes to develop additional novel antibiotics to address a variety of therapeutic needs.

Source: Business Wire

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