Shire plc Shire Appoints Andreas Busch, Ph D As Head Of Research And Development And Chief Scientific Officer
TIDMSHP
Shire Appoints Andreas Busch, Ph D as Head of Research and Development
and Chief Scientific Officer
Howard Mayer, MD to become Chief Medical Officer
Cambridge, MA - December 1, 2017 - Shire plc (LSE: SHP, NASDAQ: SHPG),
the global biotech leader in rare diseases, today announced that Andreas
(Andy) Busch, Ph D, will join Shire as Executive Vice President, Head of
Research and Development and Chief Scientific Officer, and will become a
member of the Company's Executive Committee beginning in January. Howard
Mayer, MD, currently serving as the Company's Head of Research and
Development (ad interim), has been appointed Chief Medical Officer, also
effective in January 2018.
"Andy is an outstanding scientist with extensive experience leading
research and development functions, and an established track record of
building broad portfolios that encompass both biologics and small
molecules," said Flemming Ornskov, MD, MPH, Chief Executive Officer,
Shire. "We look forward to Andy enabling us to further accelerate our
ability to discover novel treatments for our innovative rare disease
pipeline."
Dr. Busch is currently Head of Drug Discovery and a member of the
Executive Committee for the Pharmaceuticals division of Bayer, where he
leads a team of approximately 3,300 researchers. During his 13 years at
Bayer, he has held roles of increasing responsibility within the company,
including Senior Vice President, Head Discovery Europe at Bayer
HealthCare and Executive Vice President, Global Head Drug Discovery. Dr.
Busch was responsible for the Schering drug discovery integration, the
overall R&D strategy and enforced the improvement of Bayer's research
productivity. Prior to joining Bayer, Dr. Busch was Global Head of
Cardiovascular Research at Hoechst and Sanofi-Aventis. Prior to that, he
led independent research groups as a Heisenberg Fellow at the University
of Tübingen and the Max-Planck-Institute for experimental Medicine
in Göttingen.
Dr. Busch is a member of several Supervisory and Scientific Boards,
including the German Cancer Research Center, the University of
Tübingen, the Max-Delbrück-Center and the Max-Planck-Institute
of Molecular Genetics. He also holds the title of Extraordinary
Professor of Pharmacology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University in
Frankfurt, Germany. Dr. Busch received his license to practice Pharmacy
and Ph D in Pharmacology from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University
Frankfurt. He is the author of some 400 publications and abstracts, and
received the prestigious Sir Bernard Katz and Franz Volhard Awards for
his work on renal and cardiac ion channels and transporters.
"I am excited by the opportunity to lead the research and development
function for Shire, which has developed and brought to market numerous
high-impact medicines targeting underserved patient populations," said
Dr. Busch. "This is a unique time to join Shire, as it has built an
industry-leading pipeline of rare disease programs in recent years and
has a sharp focus on serial innovation in areas of significant patient
need. I believe there is tremendous opportunity to accelerate this
effort and look forward to leading this talented R&D team."
Howard Mayer, MD, is currently Senior Vice President and Head of R&D (ad
interim) at Shire. Previously, he was Senior Vice President and Head of
Global Clinical Development at the Company. Dr. Mayer joined Shire in
2012 and has been responsible for global clinical development across
immunology, hereditary angioedema, hematology, lysosomal storage
disorders, gastrointestinal / internal medicine / endocrine, ophthalmics,
a growing franchise in oncology, and neuroscience. Prior to joining
Shire, he served as Chief Medical Officer at EMD Serono, a division of
Merck KGaA.
Dr. Ornskov continued, "Howard is an established leader at Shire and in
the industry, with extensive clinical development and regulatory
experience across a variety of therapeutic areas. He has been an
integral component to building and advancing Shire's pipeline with
nearly 40 programs in the clinic, including 17 in later stages of
development. I am confident he will thrive in his new role, as we
continue to seek to deliver novel rare disease treatments to patients in
need."
Dr. Mayer obtained his BA from the University of Pennsylvania and his MD
from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, which was followed
by an internship and residency at Mount Sinai Hospital and an Infectious
Diseases fellowship at Harvard Medical School. He currently serves on
the Board of Directors for Genocea Biosciences, as well as the
scientific advisory boards of Macrolide Pharmaceuticals and Arsanis
Biosciences.
"Over the last five years, I have had the honor of working with some of
the most talented individuals in the industry, as we developed new
therapies for patients suffering from rare diseases," said Dr. Mayer.
"In my new role, I look forward to continuing to work with the R&D team
at Shire, while advancing the Company's clinical development strategy."
For further information please contact:
Investor Relations
Ian Karp ikarp@shire.com +1 781 482 9018
Robert Coates rcoates@shire.com +44 203 549 0874
Media
Amy Ryan aryan0@shire.com +1 617 588 8687
Katie Joyce kjoyce@shire.com +1 781 482 2779
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Shire
Shire is the global leader in serving patients with rare diseases. We
strive to develop best-in-class therapies across a core of rare disease
areas including hematology, immunology, genetic diseases, neuroscience,
and internal medicine with growing therapeutic areas in ophthalmics and
oncology. Our diversified capabilities enable us to reach patients in
more than 100 countries who are struggling to live their lives to the
fullest.
We feel a strong sense of urgency to address unmet medical needs and
work tirelessly to improve people's lives with medicines that have a
meaningful impact on patients and all who support them on their journey.
www.shire.com
This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf
of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.
The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely
responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information
contained therein.
Source: Shire plc via Globenewswire
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 01, 2017 03:15 ET (08:15 GMT)