Healthcare >> CEO Interviews >> October 17, 2003
GERALD J. YAKATAN, President and Chief Executive Officer of AVANIR
Pharmaceuticals, has been at the company's helm since March 1998. For
the three years prior to his appointment as President and Chief
Executive Officer, Dr. Yakatan served as Vice President of Drug
Development. He was elected to serve on the Board of Directors in
January 1998. Dr. Yakatan also serves as Chairman of IriSys Research and
Development, LLC, a company he founded in 1996 that specializes in
pharmaceutical product development contract services. In 1990, he
founded Tanabe Research Laboratories, USA, Inc., a wholly owned
subsidiary of Tanabe Seiyaku of Osaka, Japan, where he served as
President and Chief Executive Officer 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 was
appointed Vice President for Worldwide Product Development. From 1971 to
1980, Dr. Yakatan was on the faculty of the University of Texas at
Austin where he also served as Chairman of the Department of
Pharmaceutics and as Assistant Director of the Drug Dynamics Institute.
Dr. Yakatan has published more than 60 papers in scientific and
professional journals in the areas of pharmacokinetics, biopharmaceutic,
analysis of drugs in biological fluids and drug stability. Dr. Yakatan
received his 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 in Pharmaceutical Sciences by the
University of Florida, Gainesville, in 1971. Profile
development?
Dr. Yakatan: We have a unique process in which we develop lead compounds
in a particular therapeutic area very
