Genomics company names new chairman, president.

2004 OCT 18 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Human Genome Sciences, Inc., (HGSI) announced that Argeris (Jerry) N. Karabelas, PhD, will become chairman of the company's board of directors following the planned October 17 retirement of William A. Haseltine, PhD, current chairman and CEO.

The company also announced that Craig A. Rosen, PhD, has been promoted to president and chief operating officer, effective immediately.

Karabelas, Partner of Care Capital, LLC, became a director of Human Genome Sciences in 2002. He served as head of Healthcare and CEO of Worldwide Pharmaceuticals for Novartis AG from 1998 until July 2000.

In that capacity, Karabelas directed the management of Novartis Pharma, Ciba Vision and Generics, and was responsible for strategic and operational leadership of Research and Development. More recently, Karabelas was the founder and, from July 2000 to October 2001, chairman of the Novartis BioVenture Fund.

He joined Care Capital, LLC, an investment firm, in November 2001. Karabelas spent most of his career prior to Novartis at SmithKline Beecham, advancing through a succession of executive positions of increasing responsibility from 1981 until 1998, including VP, U.S. marketing, president of North American Pharmaceuticals, and executive VP, SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals.