KALAMAZOO – Emiliem, an oncology drug development company, has relocated its R&D Center from Emeryville, California to the Southwest Michigan Innovation Center in Western Michigan University?s Business Technology and Research Park.
?Our company is right at the stage where we need to establish a core research and development center,? said Emiliem CEO Dale Johnson. ?Our requirements included space, infrastructure, availability of capital and an experienced talent pool in the area. Most of our current business collaborators are in Michigan and Wisconsin, and we view Kalamazoo, because of its history in the drug development business, as an ideal place to establish our R&D center and start to grow this new part of the business. We also viewed the Kalamazoo Promise as a benefit for the families of our employees.?
Emiliem is a privately-held biotechnology company whose objective is to establish a pipeline of commercially attractive drug products. The proprietary products are identified and developed both by an internal discovery function and through in-licensing and acquisition of pre-clinical and clinical development assets. The internal discovery function creates novel oncology therapeutics by identifying relevant, multiple kinase targets in cancer and designing multi-selectivity into each new lead compound. Key management will divide time between California and Michigan. Emiliem expects to hire approximately ten new R&D employees in the Kalamazoo area over the next two years.
?Emiliem is a terrific fit with the Innovation Center and our community,? said Fred Einspahr, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Southwest Michigan Innovation Center. ?They are bringing a novel and very promising technology platform into a region that has world class drug discovery and development expertise. We all expect this collaboration to identify and successfully develop effective new drug therapies in oncology.?
Johnson has more t 25 years of experience in biotechnology and pharmaceutical research and development activities where he has led and managed groups ranging from small units in start-up companies to multi-national units in large corporations. He has participated in the research and development of over 100 compounds of which 15 have become marketed health care medicinal products in the U.S. and Europe.
Most recently, he served as Vice President, Drug Assessment & Development at Chiron Corporation, and previously as Vice President of Preclinical Development. He received his Ph.D. degree in Toxicology from the University of Michigan where he was awarded an AFPE Fellowship. Prior to his Ph.D. work, he received B.S. and Pharm.D. degrees from the University of Michigan and completed a clinical pharmacy residency at the Medical Center where he was awarded the National Resident of the Year Award.
?The addition of Emiliem to the west Michigan life science community shows just how intricate our life science web is becoming. When a biotechnology company developing oncology drug products relocates to Kalamazoo from California, you know you are doing something right,? said Ron Kitchens, Chief Executive Officer of Southwest Michigan First.
For more information, click on SouthwestMichiganFirst.Com
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