Aveo Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:[[ticker:AVEO]]), a Cambridge, MA-based company with a drug in late-stage development for advanced kidney cancer, said today that it has recruited biotech bigwig Henri Termeer, the outgoing chairman and CEO of biotech drug maker Genzyme, to join its board of directors. Termeer, who joined Genzyme in 1983 and built it into an industry standout, plans to step down from his CEO role at the company now that French drug giant Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE:[[ticker:SNY]]) has completed its $20.1 billion buyout of the biotech firm. Aveo CEO Tuan Ha-Ngoc, a biotech veteran himself, has known Termeer for decades. Aside from his unmatched experience in the industry, Termeer’s mere presence on Aveo’s board should raise the firm’s profile as it moves ahead with development of tivozanib, a drug that aims to inhibit the growth of blood vessels that feed tumors. Tivozanib is in a pivotal Phase III clinical trial comparing it to the approved drug sorafenib in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma, an aggressive form of kidney cancer.
