TARRYTOWN, N.Y., Nov. 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --
Columbia's highest honor
bestowed for Yancopoulos' contributions to science and
medicine
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: REGN) today announced
that George D. Yancopoulos, M.D.,
Ph.D., Co-Founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer, was
awarded Columbia College's Alexander Hamilton Medal, the highest honor
awarded to a member of the Columbia
College community for distinguished service and
accomplishment in any field of endeavor.
"George is a generational talent as a life scientist, technology
innovator and drug developer. His abilities as a biotech leader,
combined with his remarkably synergistic and long-term partnership
with Len Schleifer, are the major
drivers behind Regeneron's extraordinary growth and contributions
to human health over the years," said Nobel Prize winner and
Regeneron board member Michael S.
Brown, M.D., Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Sciences and
Regental Professor of Molecular Genetics and Internal Medicine at
the University of Texas Southwestern Medical
Center.
Biography & Career Accomplishments
Yancopoulos, the son of Greek immigrants and a life-long New
Yorker, attended New York City
public schools and graduated as valedictorian of the Bronx High
School of Science, where he was a top winner of the nation's
premier high school science competition, then known as the
Westinghouse Science Talent Search. He became valedictorian of
Columbia College in 1980, where he
received the Eisenhower award as the school's top scholar-athlete
while serving as captain of the crew team. Yancopoulos then
received his M.D. from Columbia University's
College of Physicians and Surgeons and his Ph.D. in
Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from Columbia University's Graduate School of Arts and
Sciences, where he was chosen to represent his doctoral
class as commencement speaker. He launched his career as an
academic scientist with Frederick W.
Alt at Columbia, publishing
seminal papers in molecular immunology.
In 1989, Yancopoulos left academia to join Leonard S. Schleifer, M.D., Ph.D., his
Co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Regeneron.
Under their leadership, Regeneron has become one of the most
admired and innovative companies in biotech, with seven
FDA-approved medicines since 2008, and a pipeline of over twenty
additional investigational products – all homegrown in the
company's own laboratories. In the last twenty years, fewer than
100 biotech companies have invented and successfully obtained FDA
approval for even one drug, and only a handful have done this four
or more times. Regeneron medicines include the blockbusters
EYLEA® (aflibercept) Injection and Dupixent®
(dupilumab). Regeneron medicines are used to treat vision loss,
asthma, atopic dermatitis, heart disease, arthritis and cancer, and
the National Institutes of Health recently announced the
effectiveness of Regeneron's investigational Ebola virus infection
therapy.
Yancopoulos takes an unusually hands-on approach to drug
discovery, serving as lead inventor and developer. He works closely
with key members of his team to invent Regeneron's medicines and
their underlying foundational technologies, such as the
VelociGene® "knockout" platform, the
VelocImmune® human antibody mouse, and the
Veloci-Bi™ bispecific antibody creation
platform. During the 1990s, he was among the ten most highly cited
scientists in the world, with landmark publications pertaining to
the cloning and biology of numerous growth factors and their
receptors (from the Neurotrophins, Angiopoietins, and Ephrins to
the CNTF receptor and the Agrin receptor, MUSK), on the elucidation
of the mechanism of action of the cytokine class of receptors, and
other findings leading to the development of Regeneron's medicines
and technologies. His team continues to pursue cutting-edge
research, such as through the Regeneron Genetics Center, a
world-leading effort that has sequenced the exomes of nearly one
million people and paired this information with de-identified
medical records in the quest to identify new and improved treatment
options.
Yancopoulos is passionate about giving back to the Columbia community and committed to supporting
the next generation of great young scientists. He leads Regeneron's
numerous STEM education and mentorship programs, including a
$100 million commitment to the
Regeneron Science Talent Search, which was formerly sponsored by
Intel and Westinghouse.
Yancopoulos was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences
in 2004 and into the Biotech Hall of Fame in 2014. He and Schleifer
were selected as Ernst & Young's "Entrepreneurs of the Year" in
2016. Other accolades from Columbia include the Steven's Triennial Prize
for original medical research, the University Medal of Excellence
and the John Jay Award for
distinguished professional achievement. Yancopoulos' efforts have
also been recognized at the company level, as Regeneron has
routinely been listed by Forbes as one of the "Ten Most
Innovative Companies in the World" and by Science magazine
as either the 1st or 2nd Top Biopharma Company to work for over the
past nine years.
Many of Yancopoulos' fellow R&D leaders at Regeneron also
have Columbia roots, including
Drew Murphy, Ph.D. (Executive Vice
President, Research), and Lynn
MacDonald, Ph.D. (Vice President, Research), who are
Yancopoulos' co-inventors of the VelociGene and
VelocImmune technologies; Christos
Kyratsous, Ph.D. (Vice President, Infectious Disease and
Viral Vector Technologies), who spearheaded development of
Regeneron's Ebola treatment; Ned
Braunstein, M.D. (Senior Vice President, Regulatory,
Pharmacovigilance and Risk Management), and David Weinreich, M.D. (Senior Vice President and
Head of Global Clinical Development), who lead the Company's
regulatory and Global Development efforts; Israel Lowy, M.D., Ph.D. (Senior Vice President
and Head of Translational Science and Oncology), who leads
Regeneron's clinical program in oncology; and Jay Markowitz, M.D. (Senior Vice President,
Portfolio Management), who leads strategic direction.
About Regeneron
Regeneron (NASDAQ: REGN) is a
leading biotechnology company that invents life-transforming
medicines for people with serious diseases. Founded and led for 30
years by physician-scientists, our unique ability to repeatedly and
consistently translate science into medicine has led to
seven FDA-approved treatments and numerous product candidates
in development, all of which were homegrown in our laboratories.
Our medicines and pipeline are designed to help patients with eye
diseases, allergic and inflammatory diseases, cancer,
cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, infectious diseases, pain
and rare diseases.
Regeneron is accelerating and improving the traditional drug
development process through our
proprietary VelociSuite® technologies,
including VelocImmune® which uses a unique
genetically-humanized mouse to produce optimized fully-human
antibodies and bispecific antibodies, and through ambitious
research initiatives such as the Regeneron Genetics Center, which
is conducting one of the largest genetics sequencing efforts in the
world.
For additional information about the company, please
visit www.regeneron.com or follow @Regeneron on
Twitter.
Regeneron Media Relations
(914)
847-3407
media@regeneron.com
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SOURCE Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.