– IRELAND, Dublin – Horizon Pharma plc (NASDAQ:HZNP), a biopharmaceutical company focused on improving patients’ lives by identifying, developing, acquiring and commercializing differentiated and accessible medicines that address unmet medical needs, today announced that it has appointed Pascale Witz and James Shannon, M.D. to its board of directors.
“I would like to welcome Pascale and James, who bring significant commercial and medical research experience, respectively, to help guide our growth and continue to strengthen the capability of our board of directors,” said Timothy P. Walbert, chairman, president and chief executive officer, Horizon Pharma plc. “Importantly, their passion for delivering innovative therapies to patients with rare diseases aligns with our company culture.”
Pascale Witz brings more than two decades of global healthcare management experience to the board and most recently served as executive vice president, global diabetes and cardiovascular at Sanofi. During her tenure with the company, she launched multiple medicines across three continents and strengthened the pipeline through licensing and partnerships. A strong advocate for improving the engagement of chronic disease patients, she hired the first chief patient officer in the industry and led a transformative new Integrated Care initiative at Sanofi, leveraging technology and digital health to improve patient outcomes, ultimately creating its diabetes joint venture with Verily Life Sciences, LLC, an Alphabet company (previously Google Life Sciences).
Prior to joining Sanofi, Ms. Witz served more than 17 years at GE Healthcare where, in her final role as president and chief executive officer of its medical diagnostics business, she ran a $2 billion integrated pharmaceutical organization that encompassed research and development through commercial.
Ms. Witz received her Master of Business Administration in Economics and Marketing from INSEAD and her Master of Science in Biochemistry from INSA Lyon. She currently serves on the board of directors for Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA, a world leader in dialysis, Savencia SA, a food and dairy company; and Regulus Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of microRNA therapeutics.
Dr. James Shannon brings more than 25 years of clinical development experience to the board. He most recently served as the chief medical officer of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), where he was responsible for matters of patient safety, general medical governance, medical ethics and integrity, medical information as well as investigations involving human subjects relating to any GSK medicine in development or on the market.
Previously, Dr. Shannon spent more than a decade with Novartis. In his last role with the company, as global head of pharma development, he was responsible for all of Novartis’s development activities, from pre-clinical through Phase 4 and oversaw an annual development budget of approximately $4 billion.
Dr. Shannon received his science and medical degrees from Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He serves on the board of directors for MannKind Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company focused on treatments for diabetes; ProQR Therapeutics, a developer of RNA-based therapeutics; Immodulon Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapies using mycobacterial agents and MyTomorrows, a health-based platform that collaborates with drug developers to provide early access to treatments for patients who have exhausted all other options.
About Horizon Pharma plc
Horizon Pharma plc is a biopharmaceutical company focused on improving patients’ lives by identifying, developing, acquiring and commercializing differentiated and accessible medicines that address unmet medical needs. The Company markets 11 medicines through its orphan, rheumatology and primary care business units.
For more information : http://www.horizonpharma.com
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