The pharma-biotech executive jumps show no sign of abating as a former Pfizer vet joins the ranks of startup Outpost Medicine as its R&D trials lead.
Ian Mills, M.D., becomes its new chief medical officer, coming from his role as head of clinical development at Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Europe; before this, he was a long-serving Pfizer vet serving across several research posts, with a focus on urology.
Outpost, with bases in Indianapolis and London, launched just last year and has since raised $61 million in a series A from the likes of Frazier Healthcare Partners, Adams Street Partners, Novo Holdings, Vivo Capital and Takeda Venture.
When it launched, Takeda gave out an exclusive license to the early-stage biotech for a clinical-stage product candidate in testing for stress urinary incontinence.
“Ian will be an outstanding addition to our leadership team, and we are very pleased to welcome him to Outpost,” said Scott Byrd, CEO of Outpost and formerly of Acacia Pharma and Lilly, in a release. “His extensive global drug development experience, including successfully guiding two pharmaceutical products to FDA approval for urology indications, will be pivotal to building our capabilities and leading the development of our lead product candidate, OP-687, for the treatment of overactive bladder and irritable bowel syndrome.”
By Ben Adams
Source: Fierce Biotech
The company plans to pour more than $500 million in additional funds into its active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) plant in Raheen, Limerick County, the country’s Industrial Development Agency (IDA) said. The new funding brings the company’s total investment in the site to 927 million euros ($1 billion).
“If in 2005 someone told you that two-thirds of our industry would be driven on the R&D side by emerging biopharma—it would be unthinkable. If one were to project that trend forward, what it would suggest is that we could have a day when we do this talk, say in 2027 or 2028, where 80% of the industry’s pipeline is coming from emerging companies.”
The German healthcare and agrochemicals giant told Reuters that in future its pharma pipeline will focus on cardiovascular disease, neurology, rare diseases and immunology, while de-emphasizing women’s health, a field it first focused on with the acquisition of the former women’s health specialist Schering in 2006.
