San Francisco, Ca., USA - Oxigene, a biopharmaceutical company, announced that CEO John A. Kollins has resigned, and that Peter Langecker, executive vice president and chief development officer, will serve as interim chief executive officer.
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Mr. Kollins has served as CEO since October 2008, as Chief Operating Officer from July 2008 to October 2008, and as senior vice president and chief business officer from March 2007 to July 2008.
Mr. Kollins has nearly 20 years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry experience, specifically in strategic marketing, new product development and business development.
Prior to joining OXiGENE, Mr. Kollins had been an independent consultant since February 2005.
From October 2004 until February 2005, he was the Chief Business Officer at CovX Research LLC, a privately-held biopharmaceutical company, of San Diego, CA.
Mr. Kollins served as an advisor to CovX since February 2005 and chaired CovX's external advisory board from 2005 until the sale of the company to Pfizer, announced in December 2007.
From January 2003 until January 2004, he served as the Vice President, Business Development at Renovis, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company located in South San Francisco, CA, and was a consultant to Renovis from January 2004 through October 2004.
Mr. Kollins graduated from Duke University with a B.S.E. (Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science) degree and earned his M.B.A. at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business.
Dr. Langecker was named chief development officer in 2009, and has more than 20 years of experience in successfully developing both drugs and biological products.
Dr. Langecker joined OXiGENE from DURECT Corporation where he served as Chief Medical Officer.
He received his medical degree and his doctorate in medical sciences from the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich and trained in hematology and oncology.
Dr. Langecker was formerly based in Switzerland where he supported development of early aromatase inhibitors and worked on a variety of other products for CIBA GEIGY (now Novartis). ■