Will lead strategic planning and commercialization of Medicure's products
WINNIPEG, Manitoba - (October 7, 2003). Medicure
Inc. (TSX:MPH), a cardiovascular drug discovery and development
company, is pleased to announce the appointment of Moray Merchant
to the position of Vice President, Market Development. Mr. Merchant's
responsibilities will include establishing partnering arrangements
and directing the commercialization, licensing and marketing of
Medicure's products for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases.
Mr. Merchant brings to Medicure more than 20 years' pharmaceutical
sales, marketing and business development experience. Most recently
he was Vice President, Sales and Marketing for aaiPharma Inc., a
U.S. based specialty pharmaceutical company. Prior to this, while
working with DuPont Pharma in Canada, he managed the sales and marketing
of their cardiovascular products and directed their business development
initiatives. In these roles Mr. Merchant was responsible for business
development, building the sales and marketing organizations and
leading the promotion of a portfolio of pharmaceutical products.
"As a product-focused company, we are delighted to have someone
with Mr. Merchant's extensive business development, marketing and
product management background join Medicure in Winnipeg at a time
when we are focused on moving forward with our clinical and business
development activities," stated Albert D. Friesen, PhD, Medicure's
President and Chief Executive Officer. "We look forward to
the benefit of Moray's expertise in this area."
About Medicure
Inc.
Medicure
Inc is a cardiovascular drug discovery and development
Company focused on developing effective therapeutics for unmet needs
in the field of cardiovascular medicine. The Company's lead drug,
MC-1, is focused on the prevention and treatment of ischemia, ischemic
reperfusion injury, and stroke. The cardiovascular and stroke market
is the largest pharmaceutical sector with annual global sales of
over US $70 billion.
The Company's second product candidate, MC-4232, is being targeted
for the treatment of hypertension, a common disorder in which blood
pressure remains abnormally high. Approximately 73% of the more
than 50 million adult Americans who have hypertension, are not adequately
treated.
Medicure also has a medicinal chemistry based Drug Discovery program
focused on discovery and advancement of novel small molecule, anti-ischemics
and anti-thrombotics towards human clinical studies.
This news release
contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, which may
cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made,
and accordingly may be deemed to be forward-looking statements made
pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements are
made as of the date hereof, and the Company disclaims any intention
and has no obligation or responsibility to update or revise any
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events, or otherwise.
For more information, please contact:
Derek Reimer
Chief Financial Officer
Don Bain
Director of Investor & Public Relations
