Tekmira Names Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Mark Kowalski, M.D., Ph.D., has been named chief medical officer and senior vice president of Tekmira Pharmaceuticals. The newly created position is intended to defines Tekmira’s focus on RNAi-based therapeutic products, including oncology treatment TKM-PLK1 and TKM-Ebola.

Dr. Kowalski has 25 years of experience in academic and clinical research, as well as clinical drug development through his work at major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, where he has led product development, clinical development, and regulatory affairs. Prior to joining Tekmira, he served in the Oncology and Inflammation therapeutic area at Gilead Sciences. following Gilead’s $510 million acquisition of YM BioSciences. Previously, Dr. Kowalski had been chief medical officer and vice president of Regulatory Affairs at YM BioSciences. Earlier, he was the chief medical officer and vice president of Medical/Regulatory Affairs at Viventia Biotechnologies. Prior to Viventia, he was the senior director of Medical Affairs at AAIPharma.

“Mark’s depth of experience in oncology will support our ongoing plans to advance TKM-PLK1, our lead oncology product, which is proceeding into a number of clinical trials evaluating efficacy in specific cancer indications,” said Dr. Mark J. Murray, Tekmira’s president and chief executive officer.