Avillion names Allison Jeynes-Ellis CEO

Avillion has appointed the well-travelled and experienced Dr Allison Jeynes-Ellis as the company's new CEO.

Jeynes-Ellis has spent time at several major pharma companies in her 22-year career in the industry, including senior roles at Roche, Genentech Wyeth (now Pfizer), Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novartis, Nycomed and trade body the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI).

These includes medical director positions and specific oncology positions and she also has consultancy experience at Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca.

Most recently Jeynes-Ellis was chief medical officer at Avillion, a UK-based company she co-founded in 2011 to focus on the co-development and financing of late-stage drug candidates.

She will now lead Avillion as it prepares to advance its first collaborative development agreement with Pfizer to conduct a global phase III clinical trial evaluating Bosulif (bosutinib) as a first-line treatment in chronic myelogenous leukaemia.

Kurt Wheeler, a non-executive director of Avillion, said: “We are confident that, under Allison's leadership, this agreement will be the first of several that Avillion signs over the coming years.”