Vernalis opens US office and strengthens US team

10 October 2014

LSE: VER

Vernalis opens US office and strengthens US team

with the appointment of SVP Medical Affairs

Vernalis plc today announces it has opened its US office in Berwyn, Pennsylvania and has strengthened its US Executive team with the appointment of Dr Pascal Borderies, as SVP Medical Affairs. A physician by training, Pascal joins Vernalis from Actavis' subsidiary company Aptalis Pharma, Inc., bringing with him a wealth of clinical and commercial experience, in both prescription (Schering-Plough) and OTC (Novartis Consumer Health) markets. Whilst at Novartis, Pascal was Director - Global Head Cough-Cold Respiratory, Pain and New Growth Opportunities. Pascal will have responsibility for all clinical development, medical affairs, regulatory and pharmacovigilance activities in our commercial and development portfolio.

Pascal's appointment further strengthens our US Executive Management team and he will be working closely with Tom Parker, SVP Commercial Operations. Tom joined Vernalis in February 2014 and has over thirty years commercial pharmaceutical experience selling and marketing prescription respiratory products for cough cold, asthma, allergic rhinitis, C.O.P.D. and other primary care and specialty products. Tom has led several co-promotional/co-marketing initiatives including company and product acquisition integrations and has considerable experience with extended release liquid cough cold products. 

The Berwyn office will be the central location for our US operations.

Ian Garland, CEO of Vernalis commented "We are delighted to establish our base in the US and welcome Pascal to the team. His knowledge and experience perfectly complement our current team's expertise as Vernalis continues to grow its US commercial business in preparation for the expected launch in 2015 of its first cough cold product Tuzistra™ XR."

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About Vernalis

Vernalis is a revenue generating development stage pharmaceutical company with significant expertise in drug development. The Group has one marketed product, frovatriptan for the acute treatment of migraine, an exclusive licensing agreement to develop and commercialise multiple novel products focussed on the US prescription cough cold market as well as seven programmes in its NCE development pipeline. Vernalis has also significant expertise in fragment and structure based drug discovery which it leverages to enter into collaborations with larger pharmaceutical companies. The Company's technologies, capabilities and products have been endorsed over the last five years by collaborations with leading pharmaceutical companies, including AKP, Biogen Idec, Endo, GSK, Genentech, Lundbeck, Menarini, Novartis, Servier and Tris.

For further information about Vernalis, please visit www.vernalis.com

Vernalis Forward-Looking Statement

This news release may contain forward-looking statements that reflect the Company's current expectations regarding future events including the clinical development and regulatory clearance of the Company's products, the Company's ability to find partners for the development and commercialisation of its products, as well as the Company's future capital raising activities. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Actual events could differ materially from those projected herein and depend on a number of factors including the success of the Company's research strategies, the applicability of the discoveries made therein, the successful and timely completion of clinical studies, the uncertainties related to the regulatory process, the ability of the Company to identify and agree beneficial terms with suitable partners for the commercialisation and/or development of its products, as well as the achievement of expected synergies from such transactions, the acceptance of frovatriptan and other products by consumers and medical professionals, the successful integration of completed mergers and acquisitions and achievement of expected synergies from such transactions, and the ability of the Company to identify and consummate suitable strategic and business combination transactions.