Biogen, Inc. (NASDAQ/BGEN) announced today that Whaijen Soo, M.D., Ph.D. has been appointed Senior Vice President, Medical Research. Dr. Soo will oversee all medical research activities, and he will also serve as a member of the Research and Development management team. He reports to Dr. Burt Adelman, Executive Vice President, Research and Development.
“As Biogen prepares to celebrate its 25 years as a biotechnology pioneer, Dr. Soo´s addition will help the organization to continue to deliver on the promise of world-class drug discovery,” said Dr. Adelman. “Dr. Soo brings considerable medical research and clinical management expertise to this position, in which he will contribute greatly to Biogen´s efforts to develop life-changing medicines for people throughout the world.”
Dr. Soo joins Biogen following a distinguished 17-year career with Roche Global Development, where he most recently served as Vice President, Clinical Sciences and was responsible for global strategic planning. During his tenure with Roche, Soo headed the oncology, virology and transplant areas and built Roche´s genomics and bioinformatics capabilities. In addition, Soo was responsible for the integration of diagnostics with pharmaceutical business strategy.
During his career with Roche, Soo was instrumental in making AIDS a treatable disease by developing medicines that have reduced AIDS mortality by 90 percent. Soo also held several positions with Roche, including Research Physician Section Head, Assistant Vice
President and Global Therapeutic Area Head, and Vice President, Virology and Immunology, Global Clinical Research.
Dr. Soo earned a B.S. in Chemistry from the National Taiwan University and graduated with a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley. He attended the University of California at San Francisco Medical School and performed his residency in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Woman´s Hospital, Harvard Medical School.
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 worldwide sales of AVONEX® (Interferon beta-1a) for treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis, 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.
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