Biotech firm makes new hire

Advertiser Staff

Biotechnology firm Hawaii Biotech Inc. has hired Robert Swift, a former top researcher at multinational biotech firm Genentech, to be executive vice president of research and development.

Swift will head up R&D for the 'Aiea company, which is developing a vaccine for dengue fever and several anti-oxidant products.

Swift has about 30 years' experience as a biotech and pharmaceutical researcher and entrepreneur. He served as director of new product development for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in the late 1970s, founded the clinical research department for Genentech in 1980, and founded three San Francisco Bay Area research companies since 1988.

Hawaii Biotech, which has about two dozen employees, was founded in 1982 as a joint venture between the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association and nine University of Hawai'i professors and researchers.