SAN CARLOS, Calif., June 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Nektar Therapeutics (Nasdaq: NKTR) today announced the promotion of Lorianne Masuoka, M.D. to the position of Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Masuoka reports to Nektar's Senior Vice President, Drug Development and Chief Drug Development Officer, Randall Moreadith, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Masuoka has over 15 years of experience in clinical research and development. As Chief Medical Officer, she will be instrumental in helping to develop Nektar's clinical development strategy while continuing to oversee all clinical development functions, including Clinical Operations, Clinical Pharmacology, Drug Safety, Biometrics and Data Management. Dr. Masuoka joined Nektar in August 2008 as Vice President of Clinical Development.
'Lorianne's extensive clinical experience and superb guidance of our clinical development and operations teams make her an outstanding choice for Chief Medical Officer,' said Randall Moreadith, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Drug Development and Chief Drug Development Officer of Nektar, 'Since joining Nektar, she has been instrumental in building our Drug Development group and assembling an internal Biometrics and Data Management Group, as well as streamlining our clinical operations.'
Prior to Nektar, Lorianne was Vice President of Clinical Development at Five Prime Therapeutics where she led the advancement of a number of protein and antibody therapeutics in the areas of oncology, immunology and metabolic disease. Prior to that, Lorianne held senior leadership positions at Chiron and Berlex, where she was instrumental in development of Betaseron(R) for relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis as well as numerous oncology programs.
Dr. Masuoka received her M.D. from the University of California, Davis, completed a Fellowship at Yale University and is board certified in Neurology.
About Nektar
Nektar Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics based on its PEGylation and advanced polymer conjugation technology platforms. Nektar's technology and drug development expertise have enabled nine approved products for partners, which include leading biopharmaceutical companies. Nektar is also developing a robust pipeline of its own potentially high-value therapeutics that address unmet medical needs by leveraging and expanding its technology platforms to improve and enable molecules.
