Asceneuron appoints chief medical officer

Lausanne, Switzerland-based Asceneuron has appointed Michael Ryan as its new chief medical officer.

Ryan brings over 15 years of central nervous system clinical research experience to the role, and takes on responsibility for Asceneuron's pipeline of innovative small molecules and progressing tau modifiers through its clinic.

He joins the neurodegenerative diseases specialist from Novartis, where he had served as vice president of its neuroscience development franchise and therapeutic head for neurodegeneration since 2011.

Prior to this, Ryan was senior director of global research and development at Pfizer, before becoming its senior director of vaccine clinical research and leading the firm's immunotherapy programme in Alzheimer's disease.

He has also held senior clinical positions at MSD Research Laboratories and Wyeth Research in the US.

Dirk Beher, chief executive officer of Asceneuron, said: “We are delighted to welcome Michael to the Asceneuron team.

“His outstanding track record and expertise in neurodegenerative disease are crucial as we are about to progress our first highly brain penetrant and orally bioavailable tau modifier into the clinic for the treatment of a number of orphan CNS disorders.

“We look forward to working with Michael in addressing this high unmet medical need and developing our pipeline to bring our innovative small-molecule therapeutics to patients.”