Transcept Pharmaceuticals names Leone Patterson as chief financial officer

Leone Patterson has joined US-based specialty pharmaceutical Transcept Pharmaceuticals as VP and chief financial officer.

She succeeds Thomas Soloway, who has been promoted to executive VP and chief operating officer, and in her new role will have primary responsibility for all finance functions at neuroscience specialists Transcept.

Patterson joins from Net App, a publicly held data storage company, where she was VP and corporate controller.

Prior to this role, she was VP of finance at Exelixis, a biotech company focused on the development of cancer therapies.

She has also spent time at Swiss pharma giant Novartis, serving as VP of global business planning analysis in the company's vaccines and diagnostics division.

"Leone brings to Transcept a broad background in business planning and financial management," noted Glenn Oclassen, president and CEO.

"She is an important addition to our executive team and we look forward to her contributions.”

Transcept finally managed to clear insomnia drug Intermezzo in the US in November, 2011, after twice being turned down by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The company is also developing a low-dose form of GlaxoSmithKline's Zofran (ondansetron) called TO-2061. It is in phase II studies as an adjunctive therapy in patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) who have not adequately responded to approved first-line therapy.