The East/West CEO Conference today announced that Paul Stoffels, Chief Scientific Officer and Worldwide Chairman, Pharmaceuticals at Johnson & Johnson was voted by leading life sciences CEOs to receive the conference series' Lifetime Achievement Award.

"Paul Stoffels is one of the leading minds in the pharmaceutical world," said Christoph Westphal, Executive Chairman of Verastem. Henri Termeer, who co-presented the award with Biogen Idec CEO George Scangos, both past recipients of the award said, "With a deep passion for ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Paul and his team at a small biotech went to work developing some of the most important medicines against that disease and has impacted the lives of many of millions people around the world. Today, as a leader of R&D at the largest healthcare company in world, Paul is bringing that same passion and focus to transforming the way industry looks at drug discovery and development."

Through the formation of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Dr. Stoffels has initiated an enterprise wide innovation focus at the company that seeks to work with entrepreneurs on a global basis.

Dr. Stoffels' focus on patients and the need to develop important medicines was influenced by his work in Africa. He began his career as a physician/researcher in Kinshasa, Congo and Kigali, Rwanda, where he focused on HIV/AIDS and infectious diseases.

Dr. Stoffels became CEO of Tibotec-Virco in 1997, where under his leadership the company evolved from a technology-based research company into an integrated pharmaceutical R&D organization focused on new drugs and diagnostics for HIV/AIDS and infectious diseases. The organizations were acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 2002, and he continued to lead the organizations, first as President of Tibotec, and later as Company Group Chairman for the Virology franchise and Global Clinical Operations.

From 2006 to 2009, Dr. Stoffels led the CNS and Internal Medicine franchises at Johnson & Johnson. Since 2009 and until his current role as Worldwide Chairman, Dr. Stoffels served as Global Head, Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development.

"Paul has such an entrepreneurial spirit," said Biogen Idec CEO George Scangos. "His passion and devotion to keep pushing for better medicines comes through in every conversation you have with him. It was an honor to co-present the award to Paul."

The ceremony was attended by more than 200 life sciences chief executives and other members of the biotechnology ecosystem, including David Pyott, Allergan; George Scangos, Biogen Idec; Mike Bonney, Cubist Pharmaceuticals; Michelle Dipp, OvaScience; John Maraganore, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals; Richard Pops, Alkermes; Deborah Dunsire, EnVivo Pharmaceuticals; and Christoph Westphal, Verastem.

ABOUT THE EAST/WEST CEO CONFERENCE

The East/West CEO conference gathers 300 CEOs and leaders in Biopharma four times a year in San Francisco, Boston and New York. The conference is a networking forum for industry CEOs and decision makers in the life sciences. Attendees gain insights from presentations and panels featuring CEOs from several of the world's leading biopharmaceutical companies. Industry leaders in venture capital and private equity also participate. For more information visit www.bbbiotechconference.com.

Pure Communications
Katie Wilson, 919-333-7722
Katie@purecommunicationsinc.com