– UK, Oxford – e-therapeutics Plc (LON: ETX), today announced that Ali Mortazavi has been appointed Executive Chairman with immediate effect, replacing Iain Ross who is standing down as Non-Executive Chairman to concentrate on his interim Executive Chairman role at Silence Therapeutics plc.
Ray Barlow has stood down as CEO with immediate effect but has agreed to remain with the Company for a period of time to provide support to Ali Mortazavi and ensure an effective transition.
Steve Medlicott, CFO, has also stood down from the Board with immediate effect.
Trevor Jones will remain as an Independent Non-Executive Director and Michael Bretherton has been appointed as Non-Executive Director to replace Christine Soden who is also standing down from the Board.
The Company intends to appoint a further independent non-executive director to the Board in due course.
Outgoing Chairman Iain Ross added: “Ali has made a significant personal investment in e-therapeutics and I believe he is well-positioned to take the Company forward. I would like to thank Ray, Steve and Christine for their support over the last few years and to wish them every success in the future.”
Professor Trevor Jones, Independent Non-Executive Director, commented “In recent years, our understanding of biological networks that are involved in a wide variety of disease has increased massively; especially with the explosion of data on their genomic origins. The team at e-therapeutics has developed a unique approach to identifying druggable compounds that can disrupt these biological pathways in ways that are potentially profoundly more active than conventional single target-based drug discovery. The interest shown by pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the e-therapeutics NDD and GAINS platforms is testament to their potential to provide significantly improved therapies. The Company is at an exciting stage of its growth and I thank the team for their continuing commitment to this goal.”
About Ali Mortazavi
Mr Mortazavi has extensive experience in the biotechnology sector and financial markets. Recent roles include CEO of Silence Therapeutics plc from 2012-2018 as well as a founder shareholder of Evolution Group, a U.K. based Investment Bank, from 2001-2008. Ali is an experienced investor in small companies and has held numerous declarable stakes in listed and private biotechnology and technology companies.
Ali Mortazavi, Executive Chairman, commented: “Having spent an extensive period of time conducting deep due diligence on e-therapeutics’ NDD platform, I am extremely impressed with the company’s capabilities. They have consistently demonstrated their ability to uncover important biological insights and to identify active drug-like compounds that show strong activity in complex translatable screens and can be optimised into novel chemical entities.
In addition, the Company’s GAINs platform allows actionable insights to be derived from GWAS data where there may be multiple and individually uninformative variants contributing to disease risk. This recent product addition is significant, differentiated and meets a critical industry need as the volume of genomic data rises.
In both the NDD and GAINs area of the business, the Company has multiple and incoming business development opportunities with some of the largest global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies; all of whom need a better and differentiated understanding of biology in a variety of disease areas. It is envisaged that the company may choose to develop proprietary drug interventions where the data generated in house has high differentiation and value.
I would like to thank Ray Barlow and the former Directors of e-therapeutics for their contribution to the company. Together with the current R&D team, they have developed a powerful platform and ensured industry recognition of its value.”
For more information: https://www.etherapeutics.co.uk
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