
ARDANA STRENGTHENS SENIOR MANAGEMENT TEAM
Edinburgh, UK, 3 June 2004. Ardana Ltd, the emerging
pharmaceutical company focused on reproductive health, today announces
a number of appointments to its senior management team.
Mr Simon Best (founder and previously Chief
Executive Officer) has been appointed as Chairman with Dr Maureen
Lindsay promoted to Chief Executive Officer and Graham Lee appointed
as Chief Financial Officer.
Dr Lindsay joined Ardana in January 2001, where she most recently
held the position of Chief Operating Officer. One of Dr Lindsay's
main tasks has been leading the operational team in developing
and implementing an ambitious business development strategy including
the in-licensing and commercialisation of Striant™SR, together
with the acquisition of Teverelix and advancing other products
through the pipeline. Dr Lindsay's promotion reflects the growing
importance of sales and marketing for the Company.
Prior to joining Ardana, Dr Maureen Lindsay was President at
Pharmacia Corporation in New Zealand. She has ten years pharmaceutical
industry experience, including roles as Marketing Director, Community
Products, Pharmacia & Upjohn UK and Medical Adviser, Pharmacia,
UK. Dr Lindsay has direct experience of commercialising and promoting
reproductive health products. Before joining the pharmaceutical
industry Dr Lindsay spent nine years as a medical doctor in Obstetrics
and Gynaecology.
As Chairman of the Board, Simon Best, will continue to work closely
with the Ardana management team. Current Chairman, Ian Kent, will
remain on the Board as a Non Executive Director. All these changes
are with immediate effect.
Graham Lee joins the Company today as Chief Financial Officer.
Graham has worked in the pharmaceutical sector since 1980 most
recently as Director of Finance, Europe Middle East and Africa
at Pharmacia Corporation and prior to that as Pharmacia's UK Finance
Director. In this role he was responsible for the Group's finance,
IT, legal and customer operations shared services, for negotiating
licenses, product and business divestments and implementing the
UK integration and restructuring following the mergers with Upjohn
and Monsanto Searle in 1996 and 2000 respectively. Previously
Graham spent sixteen years at US multinational Upjohn, latterly
as UK Finance Director.
Simon Best, Chairman, commented:
"Ardana is at a key stage in its development, with our first
product Striant™SR, launched in the UK and a broad pipeline of
product candidates. These moves reflect the needs of the Company
as it transitions into an integrated pharmaceutical company and
will ensure that we are well positioned to become a global leader
in reproductive health."
Dr Maureen Lindsay said:
"I am delighted to be taking on the role of CEO at such
an exciting time in Ardana's development. We are in excellent
shape, having completed a £29 million fundraising, and are
looking forward to the commercialisation of our portfolio."
For more information please contact:
Simon Best, Ardana 44 (0)131 226 8550
Julia Phillips / Francetta Carr, Financial Dynamics
44 (0)20 7831 3113
Notes for Editors
Ardana Ltd is an emerging pharmaceutical company focused on reproductive
health. It aims to become a leading source of clinical and commercial
innovation in the $20 billion human reproductive health market,
which is growing at 9% per annum. In addition to Striant™ SR,
in development for primary or secondary hypogonadism, and Teverelix
LA, in development for prostate cancer, endometriosis and benign
prostate hyperplasia, Ardana has a rich development portfolio
including Chronodyne® (terbutaline) which is in Phase I/II
trials for endometriosis-related infertility (being developed
in collaboration with Columbia Laboratories (AMEX COB)) and a
reformulation of the GnRH analog 'Leuprorelin' which has completed
Phase II trials for prostate cancer. Ardana's therapeutic interests
encompass androgen replacement, prostatic disease, endometriosis
and uterine fibroids, infertility, sexual dysfunction and obstetrics.
www.ardana.co.uk
Ardana has raised £43.4 million in three funding rounds.
Ardana investors include: Merlin Biosciences Limited, MVM Limited
(MVM), Techno Venture Management (TVM), ABN-AMRO Capital, 3i Group
plc, ISIS Equity Partners plc, Scottish Widows Investment Partnership
Ltd, Saffron Hill Ventures, Mitsubishi Corporation, Green Highlander,
LLC, DVC Deutsche Venture Capital, Albany Venture Managers Limited
and 3i Bioscience Investment Trust. Ardana aims to become profitable
and cash positive no later than 2007.
Ardana was created in July 2000 to commercialise research by
the Medical Research Council (MRC)'s Human Reproductive Sciences
Unit (HRSU) in Edinburgh, Scotland, which has been at the forefront
of this area of research for the last 30 years. The MRC employs
nearly 100 staff at the Unit, which currently receives total annual
funding of £3.8 million.
The Medical Research Council (MRC), established in 1913, aims
to improve health by promoting research into all areas of medical
and related science. It is funded mainly by the government but
is independent in its choice of which research to support. About
half of the MRC's expenditure of approximately £430 million
is invested in over 40 of its Institutes, Units and Centres. The
remaining half goes in the form of grant support and training
awards to individuals and teams in universities.
MRC Human Reproductive Sciences Unit (HRSU)
Research at the MRC Human Reproductive Sciences Unit is undertaken
at a molecular, cellular and endocrine level to further understand
the regulation of the human reproductive system, with particular
attention to mechanisms that might be exploited for purposes of
contraception or account for infertility, menstrual cycle abnormalities
and disorders of pregnancy and foetal development. Immunological,
hormonal and pharmacological approaches for the reversible regulation
of human fertility are also under investigation. The Unit and
the University of Edinburgh Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
combine to form the Centre for Reproductive Biology (CRB), a collaborative
institution within the WHO Human Reproduction Programme and the
Rockefeller Foundation Contraception 21 Initiative.
Statements contained within this press release may contain forward-looking
comments which involve risks and uncertainties that may cause
actual results to vary from those contained in the forward-looking
statements. In some cases, you can identify such forward-looking
statements by terminology such as 'may', 'will', 'could', 'forecasts',
'expects', 'plans', 'anticipates', 'believes', 'estimates', 'predicts',
'potential', or 'continue'. Predictions and forward-looking references
in this press release are subject to the satisfactory progress
of research which is, by nature, unpredictable. Forward projections
reflect management's best estimates based on information available
at the time of issue.
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