Nick Rodgers joins Destiny Pharma
Clinical stage biotech Destiny Pharma has announced that Nick Rodgers will join the company as its independent non-executive director, effective immediately.
Rodgers, who has gained board experience in both public and private growth companies, has a background in the financial sector as a corporate financier and investment banker.
He is currently chairman of SEHTA, a UK-based health technology-networking organisation.
Prior to this, he was non-executive director and then chairman of Oxford BioMedica, a gene-based biopharmaceutical company.
Sir Nigel Rudd, chairman of Destiny Pharma, said: “Rodgers’ experience of guiding growth companies, and in particular those in the life science sector, will be invaluable as Destiny Pharma expands its activities and continues to advance its lead drug candidate, XF-73, through clinical development.”
Silence Therapeutics strengthens board and leadership team
Dave Lemus (pictured) has joined Silence Therapeutics’ board as a non-executive director.
Lemus comes to the company leveraging over 20 years’ of US and international business experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries having served in executive management and non-executive board roles.
His career history has seen him serve as interim chief financial officer and chief operating officer of Medigene, a German biotech company.
Lemus was also chief executive officer of Sigma Tau Pharmaceuticals and chief financial officer and executive vice president of MorphoSys, where he took the company public in 1999.
Meanwhile, Silence Therapeutics has also bolstered its leadership team with the addition of Richard Jenkins, who joins the group following 28 years’ experience in clinical development and drug discovery.
At Silence Therapeutics, Jenkins will be heading the clinical development function, reporting directly to executive chair Annalisa Jenkins.
His career history has seen him hold numerous leadership positions in the pharmaceutical industry, most recently serving as senior scientific director at the Takeda Development Centre.
Prior to this, Jenkins spent 17 years at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in the UK and US.
In addition to the new hires, Silence Therapeutics has announced that Torsten Hoffmann has stepped down from his role as chief scientific officer due to personal reasons.
Concept Life Sciences appoints John Vu as business development director
Concept Life Sciences, an integrated drug discovery company has appointed John Vu as its business development director for the west coast, UK.
Vu, whose new post will see him further expand Concept’s presence in the US market, joins the company with over 15 years’ experience in both business development and project management within the contract research industry.
He joins Concept from Eurofins, where he was director of business development, responsible for sales of in-vitro and in-vivo pharmacological services for the preclinical research market.
Philip Payne, chief commercial officer, Concept Life Sciences, said: “John’s strong business development and project management skills, and broad network of contacts, will be a great asset to Concept as we continue to progress with developing our international presence.
John’s appointment leads on from the success David Halverson has generated in expanding our US client base.”