VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 23, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Dr.
Michael Hayden, a Xenon founder and Chief Scientific Officer, has
received the Canada Gairdner Wightman Award for leadership in
medical science in Canada.
The Wightman Award is another major honour for Dr. Hayden,
having previously been awarded the Order of Canada and Order of
British Columbia, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s
Health Researcher of the Year Award, LifeSciences BC’s Genome BC
Award for Scientific Excellence and the Prix Galien Canada.
“I am thrilled to receive this award,” said Dr. Hayden during
the awards ceremony this morning in Toronto. “As a physician
scientist, to whom chance has given unusual opportunities, I am
deeply aware of the degree to which my own success today is built
upon the work, cooperation and struggles of others.”
“This is a wonderful moment for Michael and the Xenon team is
extremely proud of Michael’s profound achievements. His
scientific and entrepreneurial talents and the commitment he has
made to finding novel cures for difficult to treat diseases have
made us a better company and Canada a better scientific community,”
said Dr. Simon Pimstone, a co-founder and President and Chief
Executive Officer at Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Vancouver,
Canada.
The Gairdner Awards are a highly respected international prize.
Ten of the last 24 Nobel Prizes in medicine or physiology
have been awarded to past Gairdner recipients. Prior to Dr.
Hayden winning the Wightman Award, the last British Columbian to
receive a Gairdner Award was the late UBC Chemistry Prof. Michael
Smith, who won the 1986 Gairdner Foundation International Award and
went on to win the 1993 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
“I have known Michael and seen him in action for approximately
twenty years and can think of no one in Canada more deserving,”
said Mr. Michael Tarnow, the Chairman of Xenon’s Board of Directors
and a past President and CE
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