Gene E. Burleson, Healthcare Industry Executive and Director of Several NYSE-Listed Companies, Joins Vyteris Board of Directors
FAIR LAWN, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Vyteris, Inc. (OTCBB: VYTR), an innovator in alternative drug delivery technology, announces that Gene E. Burleson (age 69) has been appointed to the Company’s Board of Directors effective December 1, 2010. Mr. Burleson is the first of two MediSync BioServices Directors to be named to the Vyteris Board under the September 2010 merger agreement.
“We are delighted to welcome Gene to the Vyteris Board of Directors, and are confident his experience in building and consolidating healthcare services companies over a career spanning more than 30 years will be invaluable as we integrate MediSync BioServices with our active transdermal drug delivery business”
“We are delighted to welcome Gene to the Vyteris Board of Directors, and are confident his experience in building and consolidating healthcare services companies over a career spanning more than 30 years will be invaluable as we integrate MediSync BioServices with our active transdermal drug delivery business,” stated Haro Hartounian, Ph.D., President and CEO of Vyteris. “Gene’s vast experience in the healthcare industry will be instrumental in achieving our strategic and operational goals in the rapidly expanding contract drug development industry.”
Mr. Burleson served as Chairman (1989-1997) and CEO and President (1990-1997) of GranCare, Inc., which, under his management, grew from under $10 million in revenue to become one of the nation’s largest publicly-traded long-term healthcare providers with revenues in excess of $1 billion. Following the merger of GranCare’s pharmacy operations with Vitalink Pharmacy Services, he served as CEO and a Director of Vitalink a provider of pharmacy services to skilled nursing facilities. Both GranCare and Vitalink were NYSE-listed companies.
He has an extensive and successful track record of consolidation within the healthcare industry. In 2006, along with other established life science executives, Mr. Burleson joined MediSync, a consolidator of complementary, high-value, niche contract research organizations, site management organizations and related businesses.
Mr. Burleson currently serves on the Board of Directors of SunLink Health Systems. Previously he served as Chairman and CEO of Pet DRx Corporation, as Chairman of Mariner Post-Acute Network and Alterra Healthcare Corporation, and as a Director of Deckers Outdoor Corporation and Prospect Medical Holdings, among others. He holds a BS in Accounting and an MBA from East Tennessee State University.
About Vyteris
Vyteris, Inc. is the maker of the first active, ready-to-use drug delivery patch (LidoSite®) to receive marketing clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Vyteris’ proprietary active transdermal smart patch technology delivers drugs comfortably through the skin using low-level electrical energy (iontophoresis). This smart patch technology is intended to allow precise dosing, giving physicians and patients control in the rate, dosage and pattern of drug delivery that may result in considerable therapeutic, economic, and lifestyle advantages over existing methods of drug administration. Vyteris has successfully delivered a peptide non-invasively using its system, where the Company demonstrated achievement of therapeutic levels of a peptide without using any needles. For more information, please visit www.vyteris.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “expect,” “estimate,” “project,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “may,” “will,” “could,” “would,” “should,” “believes,” and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, without limitation, statements concerning the potential impact of the new marketing agreement and other matters that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from results expressed or implied by this press release. Such risk factors include, among others, the competitive environment and competitive responses to the new marketing arrangement. The Company has described other important risks and uncertainties under the caption “Risk Factors” in its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and in various filings made with the SEC. Actual results may differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements in this press release.
Nixon accepts pharmaceutical industry’s offer to track pseudoephedrine sales
Gov. Jay Nixon announced today that a new computerized system will help combat methamphetamine labs by blocking illegal sales of a decongestant at the pharmacy counter.
Legislators passed a law in 2008 requiring pharmacies to report sales of pseudoephedrine products electronically, but the mandate was never funded. Pseudoephedrine is meth’s main ingredient.
The Consumer Healthcare Products Association, a trade association representing pharmaceutical companies that make the over-the-counter product, volunteered to pay for the system.
Nixon accepted the industry’s offer, saying it will allow pharmacists and law enforcement to determine at the point of sale whether a buyer has bought large amounts of pseudoephedrine at various stores to skirt the legal limits.
Nixon said the system would allow people who legitimately need the cold medicine to purchase it, but will block sales to people trying to build an inventory to make methamphetamine.
Jim Acquisto, Product Manager at Appriss Inc., the company building the database, said the system likely will be up and running in about 90 days, and will connect Missouri’s database to those in Kentucky, Illinois and Louisiana.
Kansas and Iowa likely will be the next states to link to Appriss’ system, called Nplex.
Pharmacists will enter the buyer’s name into the database and get an immediate record of how much pseudoephedrine the person has bought along with a record of where and when the purchases were made. If the new purchase would put the buyer above daily or monthly limits, the purchase will be denied.
A buyer who is denied would receive a receipt with Appriss’ phone number asking the person to call Appriss for an explanation of the denial. The system is also able to spot fake identification cards, flag multiple purchasers living at the same address and track other suspicious patterns.
Appriss also will provide free training to pharmacy staff on how to use the system as well as law enforcement personnel on how to track suspicious purchases.
Local police agencies in Missouri are skeptical the new system will have an impact. They point to Kentucky, which had an increase in meth labs during the database’s first year of operation. They say Kentucky’s experience shows that the electronic system doesn’t stop meth labs.
Instead, police in Missouri have lobbied for prescription laws, saying electronically tracking sales won’t stop meth addicts from paying others to buy boxes of pseudoephedrine for them or shopping in groups.
So far, eight local governments have passed prescription laws, including Washington, Union, Poplar Bluff, Gerald, Kennett, Eureka, Potosi, Jefferson County and Farmington.