Arena Pharmaceuticals Appoints Executive Vice President, Research and Development and Chief Medical

Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has announced the appointment of Dr. Preston Klassen, M.D., M.H.S. as Executive Vice President, Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Klassen will report to Amit Munshi, Arena's President and Chief Executive Officer.  

"We are thrilled to have Preston join Arena at this exciting time," stated Mr. Munshi. "Having previously worked closely with Preston at Amgen on the global development and launch of multiple products, I am confident in his ability to lead our product development efforts as we strive to deliver critical data on our three Phase 2 assets in 2017."

Dr. Klassen has over 20 years of experience in biopharmaceutical product development. Most recently, he was Chief Medical Officer of Laboratoris Sanifit S.L. and prior to that was Executive Vice President, Head of Global Development at Orexigen Therapeutics, Inc. Previously, Dr. Klassen held several positions of increasing responsibility at Amgen Inc., including Therapeutic Area Head for Nephrology. Prior to joining Amgen, he was a faculty member in the Division of Nephrology at Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Klassen received his medical degree from the University of Nebraska College of Medicine and completed his residency in internal medicine, fellowship in nephrology, and masters in health sciences degree at Duke University.