Healthcare >> CEO Interviews >> March 11, 2003
GERALD J. YAKATAN, prior to his appointment as President and CEO
of AVANIR Pharmaceuticals in March 1998, served as Vice President
for Drug Development for three years. He is the Chairman of
IriSys Research and Development, a contract research organization
he founded in 1996 that specializes in pharmaceutical product
development for the biomedical industry. In 1990, he founded
Tanabe Research Laboratories, USA, Inc., a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Tanabe Seiyaku of Osaka, Japan, and served as
President and CEO for five years. From 1987 until 1990, Dr.
Yakatan served as Executive Vice President for Research and
Development for Immunetech Pharmaceuticals. In 1980, Dr. Yakatan
joined Warner-Lambert Company, Pharmaceutical Research Division,
as Director of Pharmacokinetics and Drug Metabolism. Three years
later, he became Vice President of Worldwide Product Development.
Prior to his tenure at Warner-Lambert, Dr. Yakatan was a
Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, College of
Pharmacy, and served as Chair of the Department of Pharmaceutics.
He is a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical
Scientists (AAPS) and the American College of Clinical
Pharmacology (ACCP). He is a Registered Pharmacist in
Pennsylvania and Florida. Dr. Yakatan received a Bachelor of
Science degree in Pharmacy from Temple University in 1963 and a
Master's degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry in 1965. He was
awarded a Doctorate degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences by the
University of Florida, Gainesville, in 1971. Profile
evolution of the company?
Dr. Yakatan: The company has been public since 1990, but has gone
through a major transition in the last
