Healthcare >> CEO Interviews >> January 10, 2001
Dr. Wendell Wierenga is the Chief Executive Officer of Syrrx, Inc. Prior
to joining Syrrx in September 2000, he was Senior Vice President of
Worldwide Pharmaceutical Sciences, Technologies and Development
(1997-1999) at Parke-Davis/Warner-Lambert (now Pfizer). In his former
position, he was responsible for worldwide drug development including
toxicology, PK/drug metabolism, chemical development, pharmaceutics,
clinical supplies, information systems, and technology acquisition. He
was also responsible for the integration of Agourons and Parke-Davis's
R&D units and for the management of 25 biotechnology corporate
partnerships exceeding $750 million in pre-commercialization valuation.
Previously, Dr. Wierenga was Senior Vice President for Research
(1990-1997) at Parke-Davis, responsible for worldwide pre-clinical drug
discovery and development. He was also Chair of the R&D Review Board of
Institute Recherche Jouveinal (Paris, France), Vice President of MedTech
Ventures/Warner-Lambert (Morris Plains, NJ), and Director of Diversomers
Technology, Inc. Prior to joining Parke-Davis, Dr. Wierenga was
Executive Director of Drug Discovery Research at The Upjohn Company
(Kalamazoo, Michigan), and prior to that, Director of Cancer and
Infectious Diseases Research at Upjohn (1974-1990). His education
includes a BA from Hope College in Holland, Michigan (1970), a PhD in
chemistry from Stanford University (1973), and an American Cancer
Society Postdoctoral Fellowship at Stanford (1974). He has published
more than 55 original articles, 100 abstracts, and is a primary inventor
on 30 patents. He is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Department of
Chemistry at the University of Michigan as well as a Director of Onyx
Pharmaceuticals, GenVec, Xenoport, and Aurora Biosciences. Profile
Dr. Wierenga: Syrrx is about one year old. It's a spinout out of the
Genomics Research Institute of the Novartis
