Poniard Pharmaceuticals Announces Appointment of Greg Weaver as Chief Financi...( SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO Calif. Feb. 19 /-...),Health

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Feb. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Poniard Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: PARD), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of innovative oncology products, today announced the appointment of Greg Weaver as chief financial officer and senior vice president, effective February 18, 2009. Mr. Weaver is primarily responsible for management of the financial operations of the Company.

"Mr. Weaver has broad experience in the biotech and healthcare industry, which will serve Poniard well as we continue our efforts to advance picoplatin to market," said Jerry McMahon, Ph.D., chairman and chief executive officer of Poniard. "Greg has been a key executive in innovative and successful publicly traded healthcare companies, and has played a crucial role in increasing value for shareholders. His financial management experience will be invaluable as we move forward to complete enrollment in our pivotal Phase 3 trial of picoplatin in small cell lung cancer and to develop strategic partnering and other opportunities to support our commercialization strategy."

"I am excited to join Poniard's executive team at this catalytic time in the Company's history," said Mr. Weaver. "The picoplatin clinical data to date demonstrates the commercial franchise potential of this product and I look forward to working with the management team to implement our commercial strategy."

Mr. Weaver brings to Poniard more than 17 years of experience in executive financial management, and has served as chief financial officer of both public and private biotech and healthcare companies since 1996. Most recently, Mr. Weaver served as CFO of Talyst Inc., a pharmacy automation healthcare IT company from 2007 to December 2008. During 2006 he served as senior vice president and CFO of Sirna Therapeutics, an RNAI therapeutics
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