Biogen, Inc. (NASDAQ/BGEN) announced today that Michael D. Kowolenko, Ph.D., has been appointed Vice President, Global Quality. Dr. Kowolenko will supervise the company’s worldwide Quality Operations. He reports to Sylvie Gregoire, Pharm.D., Executive Vice President, Technical Operations.
Dr. Gregoire said, “Michael brings to this new position expertise in quality assurance, research and drug development. He will be instrumental in ensuring that Biogen’s manufacturing capability continues to be world-class in quality and scale. Biogen has a record of exceeding industry standards in our ability to build and validate our manufacturing resources. We have also maintained the highest quality and efficiency in delivering products to our customers around the world. I am confident that Michael’s experience will be a great asset to Biogen in our continued drive to lead the way in biologics production.”
Dr. Kowolenko joins Biogen from Bayer Corporation in Clayton, NC where he was most recently Vice President of Quality Assurance for the Biological Products Business Unit. During his nine years at Bayer, he held several positions, including Director of Research for Biologic Products, Department Head for Preclinical Development and Senior Scientist for Clinical Chemistry and Preclinical Biology. Prior to joining Bayer, from 1989-1993, Dr. Kowolenko was at Bristol-Myers Squibb in Syracuse, New York where he was a Supervisor and then Manager of Immunotoxicology. Before joining the industry, he held several academic positions, including Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Albany Medical College.
Dr. Kowolenko received a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy, a Master of Science in Pharmacology and a Ph.D. in Immunology from Northeastern University in Boston.
About Biogen
Biogen, Inc., winner of the U.S. National Medal of Technology, is a biotechnology
company principally engaged in discovering and developing drugs for human healthcare through genetic engineering. Headquartered in Cambridge, MA, the Company’s revenues are generated from U.S. and European sales of AVONEX® (Interferon beta-1a) for treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis, (Please see full prescribing information at http://www.avonex.com.), and from the worldwide sales by licensees of a number of products, including alpha interferon and hepatitis B vaccines and diagnostic products. Biogen’s research and development activities are focused on novel products to treat inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, neurological diseases, cancer, fibrosis and congestive heart failure. The Company maintains active clinical research programs in protein therapeutics, small molecules, genomics and gene therapy. For copies of press releases and additional information about the Company, please consult Biogen’s homepage on the World Wide Web at http://www.biogen.com.