UCB recruits Yale professor to expand New Medicines team

UCB has appointed a fourth member of its New Medicines leadership team, recruiting Yale University professor of psychiatry Marc Laruelle as vice president, head of CNS.

The Belgium pharma company has been expanding its research and early development team of late, and Laruelle's appointment follows those of GlaxoSmithKline's Mark Bodmer and Genentech's Peter Theil.

Laruelle joins UCB from Yale University, where he held the position of Professor of Psychiatry from 2010 and prior to this served at GlaxoSmithKline as head of the discovery performance unit for schizophrenia and cognitive disorders.

UCB's New Medicines unit is based around two European research hubs - Braine-l'Alleud in Belgium for central nervous system (CNS) diseases and Slough for immunological disordersl. Their work covers discovery research through to clinical proof of concept.

Laruelle joins UCB's other recent new recruits to New Medicines - head of global exploratory development Duncan McHale , head of non-clinical development Peter Theil and head of immunology Mark Bodmer.