Medivir strengthens its R&D organization
Stockholm, Sweden — Medivir AB (OMX: MVIR) today announced that the company will divide its current R&D organization into two parts, Discovery Research and Development, and strengthen the R&D leadership to prepare for future strategic and operational opportunities.
Recruitment of an international research head
The research organization will be led by Richard Bethell, who will assume the position as Executive Vice President Discovery Research on April 22. Richard, who originally is from the UK, has a broad background within drug discovery and development, with nearly 25 years’ experience from the pharmaceutical industry in companies like Glaxo Wellcome, Pfizer and Shire. He joins Medivir from Boehringer Ingelheim in Canada, where he was employed as Vice President, Biological Sciences. His proven leadership has previously contributed to the timely delivery of high quality candidate drugs for clinical development. Richard Bethell has a D. Phil. in Chemistry from the University of Oxford, UK.
“We are very pleased that Richard has chosen to join Medivir. His solid expertise and experience, especially within virology, will make the company even stronger. That, together with an efficient development organization, is important for our ambition to become a profitable and rapidly growing pharmaceutical company”, says Maris Hartmanis, Medivir’s CEO.
Charlotte Edenius, who currently has the role of Executive Vice President R&D at Medivir, will become responsible for the development organization. In her new role as Executive Vice President Development, she will drive Medivir’s non-clinical and clinical development following the selection of candidate drugs.
Medivir’s Executive Vice President Commercial, Henric Juserius, has decided to leave the company. His departure will not affect the direction of the commercial operations.
For more information, please contact:
Maris Hartmanis, CEO, Medivir AB, phone +46 (0)8 407 64 30
About Medivir
Medivir is an emerging research-based pharmaceutical company focused on infectious diseases. Medivir has world class expertise in polymerase and protease drug targets and drug development which has resulted in a strong infectious disease R&D portfolio. The Company’s key pipeline asset is simeprevir, a novel protease inhibitor in late phase III clinical development for hepatitis C that is being developed in collaboration with Janssen R&D Ireland.
Medivir has also a broad product portfolio with prescription pharmaceuticals in the Nordics.
For more information about Medivir AB, please visit the Company’s website: www.medivir.com
Medivir is a collaborative and agile pharmaceutical company with an R&D focus on infectious diseases and a leading position in hepatitis C. We are passionate and uncompromising in our mission to develop and commercialize innovative pharmaceuticals that improve people’s lives.
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