Biogen, Inc. (NASDAQ/BGEN) today announced it has appointed Dr. Cornelis (Kees) Lucas as Director, International Science and Technology Development, a new position. Dr. Lucas will strengthen Biogen’s growing European business development activities and be responsible for establishing a network of academic collaborations. He reports to Kees Been, Vice President-Business and Market Development.
James C. Mullen, Biogen’s President and Chief Executive Officer, said, We are delighted that a scientist of Kees Lucas’s stature is joining Biogen in this important new capacity. Biogen is directed at increasing our visibility and scope within the European scientific community. Kees brings us many years of distinguished background as a leading European academic, with important connections at the World Health Organization and throughout the European scientific community. These credentials will enable Kees to provide critical strategic direction in our business development operation as we cultivate opportunities for future growth.
Professor Lucas joins Biogen from the TNO Prevention and Health Institute in The Netherlands, where he worked for ten years, serving since 1995 as Director of the Division of Immunological and Infectious Diseases. In early 1999, Dr. Lucas was appointed Extraordinary Professor at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. He will continue to serve part-time on the medical faculty of this university as Professor of Neuroimmunology. From 1980 to 1990, Professor Lucas worked as Chief of the Department of Clinical Immunology and Virology at the Central Laboratory Red Cross Bloodtransfusion Service in Amsterdam. A distinguished academician, Dr. Lucas sits on committees of various health organizations, including, among others, the National Health Council and the World Health Organization. He earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the Technical University in Delft, The Netherlands.
Biogen, Inc., winner of the U.S. National Medal of Technology, is a biopharmaceutical 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, and from the worldwide sales by licensees of a number of products, including alpha interferon and hepatitis B vaccines and diagnostic products ( Prescribing Information ). 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 Compay, please consult Biogen’s Homepage on the World Wide Web at http://www.biogen.com.