An NC biotech company developing a new flu treatment has named healthcare venture capital veteran Kenneth Lee to its board of directors.
Lee, a general partner with Durham, North Carolina, venture capital firm Hatteras Venture Partners, brings to BioCryst (NASDAQ:BCRX) more than 35 years of experience counseling technology companies.
Durham-based BioCryst’s lead drug candidate is peramivir, an experimental flu treatment currently in late stage clinical trials financed through a contract with the federal government. Peramivir works by inhibiting an enzyme critical to the spread of influenza. The FDA gave peramivir temporary emergency authorization in 2009 to address the swine flu pandemic. BioCryst’s pipeline includes drugs candidates addressing gout and hepatitis C.
Lee’s experience includes 29 years at Ernst & Young, where he was managing director of the firm’s health sciences corporate financing group. Before joining Hatteras Ventures, Lee was president of A.M. Pappas & Associates, a Durham venture capital firm.
Lee’s board experience includes serving on the board of companies such as Abgenix, CV Therapeutics, Inspire Pharmaceuticals, and OSI Pharmaceuticals. He currently serves on the boards of biotech companies Maxygen (NASDAQ:MAXY) and Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based Pozen (NASDAQ:POZN).
