Date: 2015-11-09
Type of information: Nomination
Compound:
Company: Mereo Biopharma (UK)
Therapeutic area:
Type agreement: nomination
Action mechanism:
Disease:
Details: * On November 9, 2015, Mereo BioPharma, a recently-formed specialty biopharmaceutical company, announced that it has strengthened the Board and senior management team with five appointments withimmediate effect:
- Paul Blackburn: Non-executive Board Director and Chairman of the Audit andRisk Committee
- Anthony Hall: Head of Orphan Diseases
- Jacqueline Parkin: Head of Respiratory and Endocrinology
- Fiona Bor: Head of Intellectual Property
- Ian Hodgson: Head of Clinical Operations
These appointments follow the appointments of Stewart Jones (Head of CMC), Craig Manchip (Head of QA) and Julian Lord (Financial Controller). Mereo was formally launched in July 2015 when it received a commitment of c.$118 million (£76.5 million) from blue chip institutional investors and simultaneously acquired a portfolio of three innovative clinicalstage development programmes from Novartis Pharma AG. Novartis, through the shares issued in consideration for the acquisition of these products, also holds an equity stake in Mereo.
Paul Blackburn has over 30 years’ experience as a senior finance executive. He spent almost forty years at GSK, where he was Financial Controller. Paul has been responsible for the successful development and execution of numerous global financial projects and strategies. He recently concluded a three year period on the GSK Audit and Risk Committee. Paul is also on the Board of Syngene International Limited, a custom research and manufacturing organisation listed on
the Indian stock market and is a member of Syngene’s Audit and Risk Committee and Stakeholder Relationship Committee.
Dr Anthony Hall joins from BioMarin where he was Group Medical Director in the Neuromuscular disease area, providing leadership and expertise to the global clinical development programmes for the company’s neuromuscular compounds. Prior to this, he was the Medical Director for Medical Affairs at Prosensa Therapeutics until its acquisition by BioMarin. He has held senior clinical development positions at DCPrime, PSR Group, Yamanouchi Europe and Boehringer Ingelheim. In 2012 he co-founded Findacure, a registered charity to support patient groups for rare diseases. Anthony holds a MBBS from the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine and a joint honours BSc from King’s College
London.
Dr Jacqueline Parkin joins from GSK, where, for the past 13 years, she held a number of senior clinical development roles and obtained extensive clinical and research expertise in immuno-inflammation, metabolic disorders and infectious disease. Prior to joining GSK in 2002, she spent ten years as a Senior Lecturer & Honorary Consultant in Clinical Immunology at St Bartholomew’s Hospital London. Jacqueline holds a PhD in Immunology from the University of London and an FRCP from Royal College of Physicians. Dr Fiona Bor has 18 years’ experience in pharmaceutical patent law. Before joining Mereo, she was Vice President and Global Head of IP at Mylan Pharmaceuticals. Prior to this, she was Senior Patent Counsel at TEVA Europe and held patent counsel positions at Carpmaels & Ransford and GlaxoSmithKline. Fiona is a dual qualified CPA / EPA and Patent Litigator and also holds a PhD in Molecular Pharmacology from London University.
Dr Ian Hodgson joins from Takeda Oncology Company, where he was Associate Director, Clinical Operations and the EMEA Regional Oncology Lead. Prior to this, he held senior clinical research positions at Shire Pharmaceutical Development, ICON Development Solutions and Sanofi-Aventis. Ian brings 15 years of global clinical development experience in a broad range of therapeutic areas including oncology, haematology, anti-infectives, cardiovascular, CNS, gastroenterology, ophthalmology, renal and respiratory. Ian holds a PhD in Medical Microbiology from the University of Edinburgh and Queen Margaret University Edinburgh.
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