Panacea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Announces Appointment of Several Key Management Positions to its Diagnostic Division

ROCKVILLE, Md.--(BW HealthWire)--July 19, 2000--Panacea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is pleased to announce the appointment of several key management positions to its Diagnostic Division.

These appointments allow Panacea to proceed with the filing of regulatory documents towards CLIA certification for its clinical reference laboratory, which will perform proprietary specialty tests for a variety of cancers and neurological diseases.

Sherri Bale, Ph.D., F.A.C.M.G., has been appointed Clinical Laboratory Director for Panacea's Diagnostic Division. Dr. Bale is a Board-certified Ph.D. Medical Geneticist and a Founding Member of the American College of Medical Genetics. She has more than 25 years experience in clinical, cytogenetic, and molecular genetics research and has authored more than 100 scientific papers, book chapters, and reviews. Dr. Bale is internationally recognized for her work in hereditary disease, especially those that affect the skin. Her management background includes 16 years at the National Institutes of Health, including 8 years as Section Chief and several years as CLIA Laboratory Director for the Genetic Studies Section of the Laboratory of Skin Biology, National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.

Dr. Bale currently serves as Co-founder, President, and Clinical Director of GeneDx, Inc., which specializes in providing genetic testing for severe hereditary diseases.

Kilian Songwe, M.P.H., M.S.B. has been appointed Head of Regulatory Affairs for the Diagnostic Division of Panacea. Mr. Songwe has served with the State of Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, where he coordinated the state-wide Childhood Lead Poison Prevention Training Program and worked with the state's testing laboratories to measure lead levels in blood specimens. Mr. Songwe was a member of The Futures Group International, International Health Policy, a Washington, D.C. think-tank, where he contributed to working groups on the situational analysis and socioeconomic impact of the AIDS epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa. He has served as Clinical Laboratory Supervisor for Nymox Corporation in Rockville, Maryland, where he assisted in establishing a CLIA-certified clinical reference laboratory that provided specialty testing for Alzheimer's disease. Prior to that, Mr. Songwe worked for 7 years at Greater Southeast Community Hospital and several years at The George Washington University Medical Center, both in Washington, D.C., as a Medical Laboratory Technologist, conducting an array of serological and clinical chemistry tests.

Mr. Songwe is currently Chief Medical Technologist at Jennie Stuart Medical Center in Kentucky, where he oversees the daily operations and management of its clinical laboratory and ensures compliance with CAP, CLIA, JCAHO, and all other Federal and State regulatory requirements.

Panacea is also pleased to announce that Kasra Ghanbari, Chief Operating Officer of Panacea, has been appointed the Technical and Scientific Director of the Diagnostic Division. Alan H. Deutch, Ph.D., Vice President for Business Development at Panacea, has previously been announced as the Director of the Diagnostic Division.

"With these appointments, we now have the regulatory, technical, and managerial experience and personnel to support the commercialization of our diagnostic menu," stated Dr. Deutch. "Our core team also provides an excellent foundation for the rapid growth we expect from sales, co-marketing partnerships, and through aggressively in-licensing new diagnostic technologies."

"We intend to file for and receive CLIA certification by the end of Q3, 2000, well in advance of our goal of providing a full menu of cancer specialty tests by Q1, 2001," said Kasra Ghanbari. "Extensive studies using immunoassays have already demonstrated the ability of our existing antibodies to effectively detect the protein Aspartyl (Asparaginyl) Beta Hydroxylase or AAH. Over-expression of AAH is a consistent feature of hepatocellular carcinomas, cholangiocarcinomas, and many brain tumors, whereas most normal tissues, including brain, exhibit low or undetectable levels of AAH."

About Panacea Pharmaceuticals

Panacea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. focuses on developing and utilizing protein-based technologies to detect and identify changes associated with and involved in diseases of the central nervous system such as Alzheimer's disease, brain tumors, transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, and Lewy body diseases such as Parkinson's disease. Changes in disease-relevant proteins by altered expression, post-translational modification, and functional variation are utilized to develop diagnostic tests and therapeutic agents.

More information is available at www.PanaceaPharma.com, a web site developed by Ei Web Promotion, a division of eiCommunications.com, Inc. (www.eiCommunications.com), which offers integrated communications and web development solutions for the Information Age.

GeneDx, Inc. is a full service genetic testing and diagnosis company, dedicated to serving the large population of individuals and families suffering from severe hereditary disorders. GeneDx provides rapid and accurate molecular diagnosis, carrier detection, and pre-natal diagnosis for several "orphan'' genetic diseases. More information is available at www.GeneDx.com.