Hans Bishop has joined Dendreon as chief operating officer, effective January 4, 2010. Mr. Bishop most recently served as president of the specialty medicine business at Bayer, where he was responsible for a diverse portfolio of oncology, hematology, and neurology products. He also served as an executive vice president of Bayer HealthCare LLC.

Mr. Bishop will be responsible for preparing for and leading the commercial launch of Provenge, including sales and marketing, as well as manufacturing, supply chain, quality, and facilities engineering.

"Hans' extensive and successful global commercial experience will add tremendous value to Dendreon's already strong executive team as we prepare for the launch of Provenge in the coming year," said Mitchell H. Gold, M.D., Dendreon's president and chief executive officer. "His deep knowledge of sales and marketing, manufacturing and operations will be integral to our success as we transform Dendreon into a commercial organization and work to fulfill our mission of transforming the lives of patients with cancer."

During his tenure leading specialty medicine at Bayer HealthCare, Mr. Bishop grew the specialty medicine business into a $4.5 billion global franchise, including overseeing the successful growth of Nexavar and the expansion of the company's oncology pipeline. Prior to this position, Mr. Bishop served at Chiron as senior vice president of global commercial operations, as well as vice president and general manager of European biopharmaceuticals. In these roles, Mr. Bishop was responsible for commercial operations for the global biopharmaceuticals division, leading country operations and programs such as new product development and pricing. Mr. Bishop previously worked at Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham.