¡¡¡¡PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Cardiokine, Inc., a privately held specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development of drugs for the treatment of heart failure and related indications, today announced that President and Chief Executive Officer David Brand will be leaving the company.

    "We are grateful for David''s many contributions to Cardiokine, which include building the current development team, successfully completing a $50 million Series B financing and most recently, securing a global co-development and commercialization agreement for Lixivaptan with Biogen Idec. We wish him continued success in the future," said James H. Cavanaugh, Ph.D., Chairman of Cardiokine''s Board of Directors.

    The Cardiokine Board is expected to make an announcement shortly regarding Mr. Brand''s successor.

    Mr. Brand was recently appointed to the Board of Directors of InteKrin Therapeutics, Inc., a privately held biopharmaceutical company pursuing the clinical development of therapeutics for diabetes, obesity and metabolic disorders. He has more than 30 years of global pharmaceutical experience in product development, acquisitions, marketing and operational management with GlaxoSmithKline ("GSK") and its predecessor companies. Mr. Brand joined GSK International in 1983 in the post of Vice President Cardiovascular/Gastrointestinal Marketing. Over the next seven years, he held senior marketing, business development/acquisitions and operational positions in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

    In 1990, Mr. Brand joined the U.S. GSK organization and was appointed Business Unit Head for Gastrointestinal and Central Nervous System Products, where he led the launch activities for Paxil? and Kytril?. In 1994, as Vice President, New Product Development, he was responsible for the pre-launch planning for Coreg?, Hycamtin?, Requip? and numerous in-licensing and co-promotion partnerships. From 1997 through 2003, he was responsible for the Anti-infective, Metabolic and Cardiovascular Business Units that launched the Requip and Avandia? franchise and developed Augmentin? ES/XR.

    Mr. Brand joined Cardiokine as President and CEO in July 2004.

    About Cardiokine

    Cardiokine, headquartered in Philadelphia, is a privately held specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development of pharmaceuticals for the treatment and prevention of heart failure and related cardiovascular and metabolic indications. Additional information about Cardiokine is available at www.cardiokine.com.

    Contacts: Corporate: Media: Federica O''Brien, Chief Financial Officer Barbara Lindheim Cardiokine, Inc. GendeLLindheim BioCom (215) 399-1200 Partners (212) 918-4650

    Source: Cardiokine, Inc.
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