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Venebio Chief Scientific Officer presents 2010 Portfolio of Scientific Activities

RICHMOND, VA, February 1, 2011 – At the 2010 Venebio Annual Meeting, Andrew Joyce, PhD, Venebio’s Chief Science Officer, summarized the company’s 2010 portfolio of external scientific and academic accomplishments.

Dr. Joyce stated, “We’re proud to report that the work of Venebio principal scientists during 2010 led to a number of scientific reports, publications and patent applications. Venebio principal scientists co-authored ten articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals as well as two additional papers that will be published later this year. Venebio scientists were also inventors on five molecular biomarker patent applications filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office. We also provided scientific support for a client’s intellectual property licensing due diligence on a major pharmacogenomic asset.” Dr. Joyce added, “Venebio’s principal scientists can look back on a highly successful year contributing to human health and improved quality of life. We continue to experience high demand for our scientific expertise this year, and the outlook for 2011 is extremely promising”.

Venebio’s scientific reports and publications covered a wide range of biomedical research topics. Venebio contributed to several publications involving high-throughput, post-genomic data methods development and analysis related to biomarker development using genomic, metabolomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic. These scientific publicationsappeared in journals such as Biomarkers, BMC Bioinformatics, and Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry. Additional publication topics ranged from a heuristic for evaluating potential reduced-risk tobacco products, in Regulatory Toxicology & Pharmacology, to a systematic review of randomized, controlled trial evidence of the medication adherence benefit and harm of calendarized (“reminder”) blister packaging for self-administered, chronic medications in Clinical Therapeutics (in press).

In 2010, Venebio’s global network of scientists grew to more than 100, including experts from the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America.. These expert scientists are selected by Venebio due to their international preeminence in areas such as molecular medicine and personalized healthcare, clinical trial design and analysis, drug safety and regulation, molecular biology, statistical and mathematical modeling, healthcare database management, and outcomes research.

Venebio was also invited to present at various national and international conferences in 2010. In August, Edward L. Murrelle, PhD, Venebio President and CEO, spoke at the 2010 National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) annual conference in San Diego, California. Dr. Murrelle spoke about the growing importance of personalized medicine (PM) and the need for educating the many constituencies of PM, including the important role of local pharmacists. Dr. Murrelle was also invited to speak on research ethics at the annual scientific meeting of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence in Phoenix, Arizona.

Barbara K. Zedler, MD, Venebio’s Chief Medical Officer, was invited to give a presentation on the role of innovative pharmaceutical packaging at an FDA Public Workshop on Developing Guidance on Naming, Labeling and Packaging to Reduce Medication Errors. According to Dr. Zedler, a key finding demonstrated that simple, low-cost calendarized (“reminder”) blister packaging, broadly implemented on a population level as part of a multi-dimensional adherence strategy, can substantially leverage therapeutic effect and achieve significant public health benefit.

Dr. Joyce stated, “We’re pleased that Venebio was able to significantly increase our breadth and depth of strategic services in 2010 with clients in pharmaceutical, medical device and global healthcare packaging companies, as well as major academic research centers. We were also able to leverage the Venebio global scientific network with more than 20 projects in disease areas such as chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD); non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH); the Metabolic Syndrome; the treatment of alcohol, tobacco and drug addiction; and, medication non-adherence. We look forward to an even broader and deeper range of challenging client engagements in 2011.”

About Venebio: Venebio (www.venebio.com ) is a privately held research consultancy small business that provides cost-effective, custom solutions for complex life sciences problems. By integrating the expertise of a global network of scientists in a broad range of biomedical fields, Venebio delivers comprehensive project management and start-to-finish problem solving in genetic and molecular epidemiology, pharmacoepidemiology, personalized medicine, bioinformatics, systems biology, biomarker discovery, and epidemiologic literature reviews and analysis. Venebio’s comprehensive services are offered to pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology and medical device companies, healthcare organizations, academic research centers, law firms, government entities and NGOs. Venebio is a member of the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park in Richmond, and was selected as a 2010 Greater Richmond Area Company to Watch. For more information about Venebio, email us at info@venebio.com or call 877-344-4347.