Aerie Pharmaceuticals has appointed John Maltman, Ph.D., as its vice president of medical affairs. Maltman joins the fast-hiring eye disease specialist three months after taking up a vice president position at Allergan.
Irvine, California-based Aerie has put Maltman in charge of leading strategic, product-related activities at its medical affairs department. The position reports to Theresa Heah, M.D., who has overseen clinical development and medical affairs at Aerie since arriving from Bayer in 2015.
Maltman is walking away from a global head position in Allergan’s medical affairs department to join Aerie. Allergan promoted Maltman to the global head and VP position in August, according to his LinkedIn profile. But, while Maltman’s stay in the role was brief, his time at Allergan spanned 14 years.
Many of the roles Maltman held over those years have little direct relevance to Aerie’s therapeutic focus. But among the spells at Allergan’s medical aesthetics and gastroenterology departments are periods in which Maltman worked on its ophthalmology assets. Those periods include 17 months as executive director for retina and medical affairs in 2015 and 2016.
Aerie will now tap into this experience as it seeks to establish itself in the glaucoma market.
Earlier this month, an FDA advisory committee voted nine to one in favor of the efficacy of Aerie’s lead drug Rhopressa outweighing the safety risks. That increased the likelihood of the FDA approving the drug for the reduction of intraocular pressure in patients with open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension. Rhopressa has a PDUFA date of Feb. 28.
Aerie has laid the groundwork for approval and commercialization of Rhopressa, plus development of its follow-up prospects, making a string of appointments over the past year. A clutch of the new hires joined the company from Novartis’ Alcon.
By Nick Paul Taylor
Source: Fierce Biotech
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