Amgen co-founder, Amarantus director Dr Joseph Rubinfeld, dies
February 10, 2017Amgen co-founder Dr. Joseph Rubinfeld, who was an independet director of Amarantus BioScience Holdings has died.
Amarantus announced the death of the biotechnology legend on Friday.
Dr. John Commissiong, Chief Scientific Officer at Amarantus said: “Dr. Rubinfeld, a co-founder of Amgen Inc., represented the best of the biotechnology industry. He was pragmatic, brilliant, honest and caring and always focused on the needs of patients. Immediately prior to his passing, Dr. Joe was selflessly working very hard to help turn Amarantus around. We will honor his memory by accelerating that effort to the best of our abilities.”
In 1980, Dr. Rubinfeld was one of four co-founders of Amgen, Inc. and served as its Chief of Operations, where one of his primary efforts was the prioritization of erythropoietin (EPO) in Amgen’s pipeline due to its initial commercialization pathway under the Orphan Drug Act.
Dr. Rubinfeld is also credited with making a major scientific and public health contribution to society by inventing the first ever synthetic biodegradable detergent.
In his career, he served 12 years at Bristol Myers, where in addition to developing Amoxicillin and Cephadroxil.
