03 March 2015
Scott Byrd and Christine Soden Appointed to Board of Directors
Cambridge, UK – 3rd March 2015: Acacia Pharma, a pharmaceutical company specialising in the development of drugs for supportive care, announces that Scott Byrd and Christine Soden have joined its Board of Directors.
Scott Byrd has 23 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Most recently, he was the Chief Commercial Officer of Cadence Pharmaceuticals Inc from June 2009 until the company’s acquisition by Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals in March 2014 for $1.4 billion. Scott was responsible for all Cadence’s commercial activities, in particular, building and leading the company’s US sales and marketing infrastructure for Ofirmev®, the post-operative pain control product. Previously, Scott served in a variety of US and global roles in sales, marketing, finance, manufacturing and strategic planning at Eli Lilly and Company since January 1992. Scott holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Bradley University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Christine Soden is a chartered accountant and is the Chief Financial Officer of the UK-listed medical device company, Electrical Geodesics Inc. Previously she was the Chief Financial Officer of the UK-listed companies Optos plc, BTG plc and Celltech-Chiroscience plc following senior finance roles with life sciences companies including Oxagen Limited and Medeva plc. Christine has substantial experience with technology and commercialisation stage companies and is a non-executive director of Fertility Focus Limited and Tower Cold Chain Solutions Ltd.
Ian Kent, Acacia Pharma’s Chairman commented: “We are delighted to welcome Scott and Christine to the Board. They bring significant commercial and financial experience to the company’s leadership team at a crucial time in its development. Scott’s recent, and very relevant, experience of the US commercialisation of Ofirmev® for post-operative pain will be invaluable as APD421, Acacia Pharma’s lead product for the management of post-operative nausea & vomiting, nears commercialisation. Christine brings significant financial know-how from a range of life science companies in both the private and public sectors.”
Acacia Pharma’s lead product opportunity, is APD421 for the management of post-operative nausea and vomiting (PONV). It comprises a low dose intravenous formulation of the marketed dopamine antagonist amisulpride, which the company has repurposed. Data generated by Acacia Pharma in Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical trials, indicate that APD421 is an effective, safe, dopamine antagonist, anti-emetic. The company believes that a drug with these characteristics can be used to manage PONV:
- prophylactically in combination with 5HT3 antagonists and/or corticosteroids in the highest risk patients, and
- to rescue patients that have not responded to PONV prophylaxis with a 5HT3 antagonist alone or in combination.