Jan 12, 2004

ZARS Names COO While Raising Series C

Robert Lippert named as ZARS executive vice president and chief operating officer

ZARS, a pharmaceutical company that develops and markets products for pain, anxiety disorders, and nausea, said it named Robert Lippert executive vice president and chief operating officer. In addition, the company told VentureWire it plans the first close of a $2-million Series C round in March or April.

President and CEO Larry Rigby said the $2 million will come from one of ZARS' partners and a second close will follow a few months after the first to allow new investors to join.

Mr. Lippert comes from ProCertus BioPharm where he was president and CEO. Prior to ProCertus, he was senior vice president at Exponential BioTherapies and senior vice president of marketing and business development at Medeva Pharmaceuticals.

He does not join the seven-member board which includes Mr. Rigby; Jie Zhang, CTO and founder; Theodore Stanley, chairman and founder; Michael Ashburn, vice president of clinical and regulatory affairs; Richard Leazer, recently retired managing director of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, a not-for-profit corporation supporting research at the University of Wisconsin; Richard Stanley, associate professor of chemistry at Wagner College; and Todd Stevens, founder and managing director and officer of Wasatch Venture Fund.

ZARS develops products to administer drugs noninvasively through the skin using heat delivery technology called CHADD (controlled heat-assisted drug delivery). The company's partners include Johnson & Johnson, Cephalon, and Ferndale Laboratories.

In November, ZARS closed $5 million in Series B funding from Zions SBIC, Wasatch Venture Funds, Cephalon, and several new and existing private investors, including members of Tenex.

ZARS has raised approximately $20 million in private equity since its founding as a technology transfer from the University of Utah in 1998. It has 28 employees and is hiring engineers.