Hawaii Biotech Inc., a privately held technology company that develops vaccines and biodefense drugs, announced Monday that President and CEO Elliot Parks is retiring for medical reasons. Parks will remain on the board of directors and be a consultant to the company.

Vice President and General Counsel Richard L. Sherman has been appointed by the board to serve as interim CEO.

Parks was recruited in 2008 to lead the Honolulu-based company, and within a few years brought in new financing and initiated the first human clinical trials for its dengue and West Nile virus vaccines. He successfully navigated the company through Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization and developed a business model of out-licensing and partnering Hawaii Biotech’s protein production capabilities, vaccines and adjuvants, as well as receiving grants and contracts from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense to support both its vaccine programs and development of biodefense small- molecule drugs.

In 2016-17 Parks led the design and development of Hawaii Biotech’s new headquarters at Dole Cannery, which includes medicinal chemistry and molecular biology laboratories.

“We will sorely miss Elliot’s hands-on leadership and are grateful that he continues to serve on the board and as a consultant,” said Hawaii Biotech board member Debra Guerin Beresini. “Finding a chief executive officer with all the experience and skills Hawaii Biotech demanded at the time was extraordinarily fortunate. His dedication to the company, the community and staff cannot be overstated.”

Hawaii Biotech, which was founded in 1982 and is the state’s oldest and largest biotech company, has 21 employees and is currently developing vaccine candidates for Ebola, Zika, COVID-19, West Nile virus, chikungunya and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever and tick-borne Flavivirus, and small-molecule anti-toxin drugs for treatment of anthrax intoxication and for botulism caused by BoNT type A intoxication.