BioCryst Pharma says former Glaxo Chairman and CEO Sanders named director, expanding board

BioCryst elects ex-Glaxo and Squibb exec to board

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Flu drug maker BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Wednesday it elected Charles Sanders to its board of directors.

Sanders worked for five years as CEO of Glaxo Inc., which is now part of GlaxoSmithKline PLC, and was chairman of the Glaxo board for three years. He is also a former vice chairman of Squibb Corp., now part of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. His appointment expands BioCryst’s board to eight members.

The U.S. government has approved BioCryst’s intravenous flu drug peramivir as an emergency treatment for swine flu. The company expects to continue testing peramivir until 2011 to win full approval. Japanese regulators are reviewing an application to approve peramivir as an outpatient flu treatment. Peramivir is intended for patients who are too sick to take an oral drug.

BioCryst is also testing a drug called forodesine as a treatment for three cancers: cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and acute lymphoblastic leukemia.