Santhera Appoints New Chief Financial Officer
During that time, he was involved in a number of capital market transactions in the value of approximately USD600 million.
Pratteln, Switzerland, January 24, 2020 – Santhera Pharmaceuticals (SIX: SANN) announces the appointment of Andrew Smith as CFO and a member of the Executive Management team, effective April 1, 2020.
Andrew Smith joins Santhera with broad experience in corporate and operational finance in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, most recently as CFO and COO at Allecra Therapeutics GmbH. Previously, Andrew was CFO of NASDAQ-listed Sucampo Pharmaceuticals Inc., based in the US. During that time, he was involved in a number of capital market transactions in the value of approximately USD 600 million. Prior to that, he held various financial and operations roles focusing on business improvement and transformation where he has gained significant exposure to European and US markets in different organizations with a focus on start-ups, spinoffs and growth. Andrew is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and a Chartered Global Management Accountant. He studied business and accounting at Liverpool John Moores University and Durham University Business School.
Dario Eklund, Chief Executive Officer of Santhera, said: “Andrew is a results-driven and entrepreneurial CFO with a very broad financial and operations background. With his proven track record in all aspects of corporate finance both in Europe and the US, the Board of Directors and I believe that Andrew possesses the expertise and leadership capabilities to strategically and effectively run our finance operations, thereby advancing Santhera towards sustainable growth. I extend a warm welcome to Andrew and I am looking forward to working with him.”
“I am excited to join Santhera at the current time where the company expects several near-term inflection points,” said Andrew Smith, designated CFO. “Together with the experienced senior leadership team including the Company’s new CEO and the support by the Board of Directors, I am looking forward to actively contributing to the Company’s strategic growth plans.”
About Santhera
Santhera Pharmaceuticals (SIX: SANN) is a Swiss specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative medicines for rare neuromuscular and pulmonary diseases with high unmet medical need. Santhera is building a Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) product portfolio to treat patients irrespective of causative mutations, disease stage or age. A marketing authorization application for Puldysa® (idebenone) is currently under review by the European Medicines Agency. Santhera has an option to license vamorolone, a first-in-class anti-inflammatory drug candidate with novel mode of action, currently investigated in a pivotal study in patients with DMD to replace standard corticosteroids. The clinical stage pipeline also includes POL6014 to treat cystic fibrosis (CF) and other neutrophilic pulmonary diseases, as well as omigapil and an exploratory gene therapy approach targeting congenital muscular dystrophies. Santhera out-licensed ex-North American rights to its first approved product, Raxone® (idebenone), for the treatment of Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) to Chiesi Group. For further information, please visit www.santhera.com.
Raxone® and Puldysa® are trademarks of Santhera Pharmaceuticals.
For further information please contact:
[email protected] or
Eva Kalias, Head External Communications
Phone: +41 79 875 27 80
[email protected]
Disclaimer / Forward-looking statements
This communication does not constitute an offer or invitation to subscribe for or purchase any securities of Santhera Pharmaceuticals Holding AG. This publication may contain certain forward-looking statements concerning the Company and its business. Such statements involve certain risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such statements. Readers should therefore not place undue reliance on these statements, particularly not in connection with any contract or investment decision. The Company disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
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