Allergen Research Corporation (ARC) has named Mark McDade as chairman and Mark Iwicki as member of the board of directors.
ARC is a privately held biopharma company developing desensitisation treatments for food allergies.
McDade is a global pharmaceutical operations executive with nearly 30 years of experience. He is current executive VP and chief operating officer at UCB, leading worldwide geographic operations, established brands, technical operations and business development.
Previously, McDade served as CEO and a director of PDL Biopharma, CEO of Signature Bioscience and founder, COO, president and director of Corixa Corporation.
Commenting on his appointment, McDade said: “ARC is a prime example of a company responding to a critical medical need in a therapeutic area where there are no FDA approved products.
“I’m honoured to come on to lead the board at this critical juncture — as we head into phase III, we are putting all the pieces in place to be able to offer people a meaningful treatment program to protect them against accidental exposure to their food allergens, with our initial focus in peanut.”
Iwicki is executive chairman of the board of directors of Kala Pharmaceuticals and sits on the boards of Nimbus Therapeutics and Taris Biomedical. He was president and CEO of Civitas Therapeutics until late 2014 and prior to this, held the same positions at Blend Therapeutics.
Iwicki said: “ARC is working to address a very compelling therapeutic area and provide an option to those dealing with food allergies. I’m looking forward to contributing to the effort to get through development and make this treatment available as a reality for physicians to offer their patients.”