Date: 2015-07-16
Type of information: Nomination
Compound:
Company: Uniqure (The Netherlands)
Therapeutic area: Rare diseases - Genetic diseases
Type agreement: nomination
Action mechanism:
Disease:
Details: * On July 16, 2015, uniQure announced that Charles W. Richard, M.D., Ph.D., has been hired as Senior Vice President, Research and Development, Neuroscience, to lead the Company’s growing portfolio of gene therapies targeting neurological diseases including current clinical trials for the treatment of Sanfilippo B syndrome and Parkinson’s disease as well as preclinical programs in Huntington’s disease and other rare CNS disorders. Dr. Richard will report to Jörn Aldag, Chief Executive Officer of uniQure, and be based in the Company’s Lexington, Massachusetts facility. Dr. Richard joins uniQure with 30 years of industry, academic and medical practice experience with a focus on rare and orphan diseases and the translation of emerging genetic technologies into drug development. Dr Richard most recently served as Chief Medical Officer of Oxyrane, a biotechnology company focused on developing second-generation enzyme replacement therapies for rare lysosomal storage diseases, where he remains a member of the Board of Directors. Previously, Dr. Richard led the Translational Medicine group at Shire Human Genetic Therapies, in the role of Principal Medical Director and Head of Translational Medicine, Clinical R&D. There he was responsible for the clinical development of novel enzyme replacement therapies for rare and orphan diseases including Sanfilippo A syndrome and Hunter Syndrome, among others. Prior to Shire, Dr. Richard held multiple roles at Wyeth, including Vice President and Head of the Department of Genomics at Wyeth Discovery Research where he established and led a team of 135 scientists providing core functions in bioinformatics, genetically-modified animal models, gene expression profiling, molecular medicine and pharmacogenomics, functional genomics and genomics core sciences. Before moving into industry, Dr. Richard was an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and before that position had completed nearly 10 years of medical practice and academic research. He received a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and an M.D., both from the Ohio State University School of Medicine, and a B.S. in Biology from Stanford University. In connection with Dr. Richard’s offer of employment, uniQure approved non-statutory stock options to purchase 200,000 ordinary shares to Dr. Richard. The awards were made pursuant to the NASDAQ inducement grant exception as a component of Dr. Richard’s employment compensation. The inducement grants were previously approved by uniQure’s Remuneration Committee and are being made as an inducement material to Dr. Richard’s acceptance of employment with the Company in accordance with NASDAQ listing Rule 5635(c)(4). The stock option awards have an exercise price of $27.82 per ordinary share, the closing price of uniQure’s common stock on July 13, 2015. The stock options issued each have a 10-year term and vest over four years, with 25% of the original number of ordinary shares vesting on the first anniversary of Dr. Richard’s hire date and an additional 6.25% of the original number or ordinary shares vesting at the end of each subsequent three-month period thereafter, subject to Dr. Richard’s continued service with the Company through the applicable vesting dates.
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