Business Services Industry

OneWorld Health Announces Promotion of Nina Grove as Vice President, Commercial Planning and Strategy

Business Wire, Oct 3, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Institute for OneWorld Health, the first nonprofit pharmaceutical company in the United States, today announced the promotion of Nina E. Grove, M.A., M.P.H, Senior Program Director, Malaria, to Vice President for Commercial Planning & Strategy.

"Nina has made significant contributions to the success of our malaria project, both in its strategy and execution," said Victoria Hale, OneWorld Health's Founder and Chief Executive Officer, "I am delighted that she will further leverage her experience in commercial, regulatory, and public health affairs in this new leadership role to advance our mission."

Since joining OneWorld Health over a year ago, Grove has led the product development and commercialization planning for OneWorld Health's malaria project and spearheaded a partnership selection process and due diligence review for OneWorld Health's semisynthetic artemisinin grant.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) awarded OneWorld Health a five-year grant of $42.6 million in December, 2004, to manage a research and development collaboration using synthetic biology to develop a new, low cost technology platform for producing artemisinin and its derivatives. OneWorld Health is using this award to sponsor research and development activities at UC Berkeley and at Amyris Biotechnologies. The goal of the collaboration is to create a stable, high-quality and affordable new source of artemisinin, a key ingredient for making life-saving anti-malarial drugs know as artemisinin-based combined therapies (ACTs).

Grove joined OneWorld Health in February 2006, bringing over 20 years in biopharmaceutical leadership and product development experience in drug development. During her 20 years at Genentech, Inc., Grove held positions in Product Development, Quality Control, Product Operations, and most recently as Director of Commercial Regulatory Affairs where her team was responsible for the product launch of four new drugs in a period of 24 months for allergic asthma (Xolair[R]), cancer (Avastin[R], Tarceva[R]), and psoriasis (Raptiva[R]) as well as several line extensions. In addition to team leadership and project management roles for international drug and vaccine development, she also served on several key committees and established a program management office. Prior to joining Genentech, Grove performed laboratory research both at the University of California, Berkeley, and at Stanford University.

"It's been gratifying and exciting to apply my commercial pharmaceutical experience to a model of global public health product development," said Grove, "I look forward to working with OneWorld Health in this new capacity to provide safe, effective, and affordable medicines for people with infectious diseases in developing countries."

Grove earned her BA in Biology from the University of California at Santa Cruz and a Masters in Medical Microbiology and a Masters in Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley.

The Institute for OneWorld Health, the first US non-profit pharmaceutical company, develops safe, effective and affordable medicines for people with neglected diseases of the developing world. The Institute for OneWorld Health, headquartered in San Francisco, California, USA, is a tax-exempt 501 (c) (3) US corporation. (http://www.oneworldhealth.org/). Media resources are available at http://www.oneworldhealth.org/media/index.php/.>