Healthcare >> CEO Interviews >> October 17, 2003
FRANK G. PILKIEWICZ is President, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of
Transave, Inc., and the inventor of the company's SLIT_ technology. He
has over 25 years experience in the biotechnology/pharmaceutical
industry. His industrial career began at the Squibb Institute for
Medical Research where he worked directly with Sir Richard Sykes in
Squibb's infectious disease program. He played a key role in
establishing a new line of antibiotics, the Monobactams, for Squibb. He
was the Vice President of Research and Development for The Liposome
Company, and is credited with building a successful R&D program there
that included the development and commercialization of the company's
first product, liposomal amphotericin B (Abelcet') for fungal infections
and its subsequent product for breast cancer, liposomal Doxorubicin
(Myocet'). At The Liposome Company, he played a key role in identifying,
establishing and managing R&D partnerships with large pharmaceutical
companies. He also served as the company lead technical spokesman and
helped raise financing in the public markets. He is the former Chief
Scientific Officer of OncoTherapeutics, a privately held biotechnology
company that was focused on an immunological approach to cancer therapy
using lipid/liposome-based pharmaceutical and biologics, including
vaccines. In three years he took OncoTherapeutics from a virtual status
to a company having an experienced staff of professionals with three R&D
programs in human clinical studies that was successfully merged with
Biomira. At OncoTherapeutics, he was directly involved in raising
venture capital financing, and played a key role in identifying the
eventual merger partner for the company, as well as identifying the
eventual corporate partner for the merged companies. His early focus at
Transave was in the initial startup, the raising of the Series A
financing of the company, the recruitment of the management team and the
startup of the company's SLIT chemotherapeutic and antibiotic projects.
His work is currently centered on enhancing the company's value through
the development of its own products. This is initially being
accomplished via the products studies in human clinical trials and, by
the establishment of partnerships and licensing agreements with
pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that are either interested in
licensing Transave's products or in licensing Transave's SLIT technology
for the development of the partner's products. He recently raised $14
million in a Series B financing which will be used to take the company's
SLIT chemotherapeutic and antibiotic products through Phase II clinical
studies. Profile
Transave?
Dr. Pilkiewicz: I'm actually the Founder of Transave and the technology
of Transave is an idea I've had for a long
