Addex Pharmaceuticals Appoints Dr Bharatt Chowrira as CEO
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Addex Pharmaceuticals /
Addex Pharmaceuticals Appoints Dr Bharatt Chowrira as CEO
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Geneva, Switzerland, 15 August 2011 - Addex Pharmaceuticals (SIX:ADXN), a
leading biopharmaceutical company pioneering allosteric modulation-based drug
discovery and development, announced today the appointment of Dr Bharatt
Chowrira as its Chief Executive Officer. Dr Chowrira has a strong track record
in the biopharmaceutical industry with over 17-years of experience, combining a
unique blend of research, licensing, corporate development, operations and legal
expertise.
"We are delighted to have Dr Chowrira take the helm at Addex. Dr Chowrira has
achieved much success in his career, including being involved in the turnaround
of two biopharmaceutical companies," said André Mueller, Chairman of Addex
Pharmaceuticals. "His expertise in R&D operations and corporate development will
be a great asset to Addex in our efforts to develop a robust therapeutic
pipeline. His leadership and experience will be important in finalizing and
implementing a new strategy for the company that will aim to deliver significant
value to its shareholders."
Dr Chowrira joins Addex after serving at Nektar Therapeutics, a NASDAQ-traded
U.S. biopharmaceutical company developing therapeutics based on advanced polymer
conjugate chemistry, as Senior Vice President & Chief Operating Officer until
January 2011. Dr Chowrira's responsibilities included, managing Nektar's
research, chemistry manufacturing control, manufacturing, operations, business
development, licensing and marketing. He led a team that established several
revenue-generating strategic alliances. He also led efforts to streamline,
realign and integrate operations across research, manufacturing, business
development, marketing and multiple R&D sites. This focused strategy and
streamlined operations at Nektar resulted in the development of a robust
clinical and preclinical pipeline and generation of significant shareholder
value.
Prior to Nektar, Dr Chowrira served as Executive Director, Worldwide Licensing &
External Research at Merck & Co. He was responsible for identifying and
evaluating product and technology partnering opportunities across all
therapeutics areas in Asia. His team attracted strategic partnership agreements
with several leading firms in the region. Dr Chowrira also served as Vice
President of Sirna Therapeutics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck, where his
responsibilities included strategic planning and licensing.
At Sirna Therapeutics, which specialized in discovery and development of RNAi-
based drugs, Dr Chowrira played pivotal roles in the restructuring and re-launch
of the company, the development of its pipeline and intellectual property
portfolio, all of which generated significant shareholder value and led to its
acquisition by Merck & Co., Inc.
"I am excited about joining Addex, a pioneering company and the recognized
industry leader in allosteric modulation-based drug discovery and development.
This innovative approach is validated already by a handful of marketed
allosteric drugs; Addex is now leading the process of industrializing the
discovery and development of these previously elusive molecules," said Dr
Chowrira. "Addex has strong fundamentals, intellectual property portfolio and
technical expertise to leverage the tremendous untapped potential of its
validated technology platform. My goal is to rapidly develop these capabilities
to address exciting targets across multiple new disease areas with unmet medical
needs. I look forward to building on the success achieved to date and expanding
Addex's relationships within the global pharmaceutical and biotechnology
industry." added Dr Chowrira.
Dr Chowrira earned his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from the
University of Vermont and his J.D. degree from the College of Law at the
University of Denver. He is a registered U.S. patent attorney and a licensed
member of the Colorado Bar Association. Dr Chowrira also serves on the Board of
Traversa Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company based in California.
Addex also announced today the dissolution of the transition committee, which
was led by Addex Vice-Chairman Vincent Lawton and included André Mueller as well
as Dr Ray Hill, Director. The transition committee was set up as an interim
measure following the departure of the former CEO. In addition, Mr. Mueller has
reverted to Non-executive Chairman from Executive Chairman.
Addex Pharmaceuticals (www.addexpharma.com) discovers and develops an emerging
class of small molecule drugs, called allosteric modulators, which have the
potential to be more specific and confer significant therapeutic advantages over
conventional "orthosteric" small molecule or biological drugs. The company uses
its proprietary discovery platform to address receptors and other proteins that
are recognized as attractive targets for modulation of important diseases with
unmet medical needs. The Company's two lead products are being investigated in
Phase IIa clinical testing: dipraglurant (ADX48621, an mGluR5 negative
allosteric modulator or NAM) is being developed by Addex to treat Parkinson's
disease levodopa-induced dyskinesia (PD-LID); and, ADX71149 (mGluR2 positive
allosteric modulator or PAM) is being developed by our partner Janssen
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., to treat schizophrenia. Another partner, Merck & Co.,
Inc., is developing mGluR4 PAM for Parkinson's disease. Addex also is advancing
several preclinical programs including: mGluR2 NAM for treating Alzheimer's
disease and depression; GLP1R PAM for type 2 diabetes; FSHR NAM for
endometriosis and benign prostatic hyperplasia; and GABABR PAM for chronic pain,
urinary incontinence and other disorders. In addition, Addex has discovery
programs to identify allosteric modulators of: receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK)
superfamily, including TrkB PAM for treating neurodegenerative diseases (e.g.
Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases); TNF receptor superfamily,
including TNFR1 NAM for inflammation (e.g. rheumatoid arthritis); and,
interleukin receptor family, such as IL1R1 NAM for gout and type II diabetes.
Chris Maggos
Business Development & Communication
Addex Pharmaceuticals
+41 22 884 15 11
chris.maggos(at)addexpharma.com
Disclaimer: The foregoing release may contain forward-looking statements that
can be identified by terminology such as "not approvable", "continue",
"believes", "believe", "will", "remained open to exploring", "would", "could",
or similar expressions, or by express or implied discussions regarding Addex
Pharmaceuticals Ltd, its business, the potential approval of its products by
regulatory authorities, or regarding potential future revenues from such
products. Such forward-looking statements reflect the current views of Addex
Pharmaceuticals Ltd regarding future events, future economic performance or
prospects, and, by their very nature, involve inherent risks and uncertainties,
both general and specific, whether known or unknown, and/or any other factor
that may materially differ from the plans, objectives, expectations, estimates
and intentions expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. Such may
in particular cause actual results with allosteric modulators of mGluR2,
mGluR4,mGluR5, GABABR, FSHR, GLP1R, TNFR1, IL1R1, RTK, TrkB or other
therapeutic targets to be materially different from any future results,
performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. There can
be no guarantee that allosteric modulators of mGluR2, mGluR4, mGluR5, GABABR,
FSHR, GLP1R, TNFR1, IL1R1, RTK, TrkB or other therapeutics targets will be
approved for sale in any market or by any regulatory authority. Nor can there be
any guarantee that allosteric modulators of mGluR2, mGluR4, mGluR5, GABABR,
FSHR, GLP1R, TNFR1, IL1R1, RTK, TrkB or other therapeutic targets will achieve
any particular levels of revenue (if any) in the future. In particular,
management's expectations regarding allosteric modulators of mGluR2, mGluR4,
mGluR5, GABABR, FSHR, GLP1R, TNFR1, IL1R1, RTK, TrkB or other therapeutic
targets could be affected by, among other things, unexpected actions by our
partners, unexpected regulatory actions or delays or government regulation
generally; unexpected clinical trial results, including unexpected new clinical
data and unexpected additional analysis of existing clinical data; competition
in general; government, industry and general public pricing pressures; the
company's ability to obtain or maintain patent or other proprietary intellectual
property protection. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties
materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results
may vary materially from those anticipated, believed, estimated or expected.
Addex Pharmaceuticals Ltd is providing the information in this press release as
of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking
statements contained in this press release as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable laws.
--- End of Message ---
Addex Pharmaceuticals
12, chemin des Aulx Plan-les-Ouates; Geneva Switzerland
ISIN: CH0029850754;
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Source: Addex Pharmaceuticals via Thomson Reuters ONE
[HUG#1538328]
Unternehmensinformation / Kurzprofil:
Datum: 15.08.2011 - 07:00 Uhr
Sprache: Deutsch
News-ID 57235
Anzahl Zeichen: 11466
contact information:
Town:
Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva
Kategorie:
Business News
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