Dr Pompliano was the former Vice President and Worldwide Basic Research Head of Antimicrobials at Merck, where he was responsible for discovery and early development strategy. Prior to that, Dr Pompliano was Vice President and Head of Biology for the Microbial Musculoskeletal and Proliferative Diseases Center for Excellence in Drug Discovery at GlaxoSmithKline, where he led a large and diverse group of biological scientists who, in collaboration with medicinal chemists, generated more than 25 small molecule development candidates, including novel structure antibacterials and antimalarials, target-specific cancer therapeutics and osteoporosis medicines. Three of these compounds, Tykerb, Altabax and Promacta, passed FDA review for new drug registration, and five other compounds are in Phase II clinical trials or beyond.
Tony Sedgwick, CEO of Novacta, commented “David is a terrific addition to Novacta’s scientific advisory board and will give valuable input to the company as a whole in his role as non-executive director. His extensive experience in the antimicrobial field and exposure to big pharma’s strategy gives us great insight into where value is seen in new anti-infective therapies. His input will be invaluable for the future direction of our new anti-infective unit, Novacta Therapeutics.”
Dr Pompliano commented “I am pleased to be a part of the Novacta team. Various threats to public health, such as multiply resistant strains, biothreats and emerging pathogens, make it more important than ever to discover antimicrobials with novel chemical structures. Novacta’s core technologies of metabolic engineering and natural product chemistry provide a versatile platform for producing antibiotics that could overcome the resistance mechanisms of the most dangerous multidrug resistant bacteria.”
About Novacta Therapeutics
Novacta Therapeutics is the newly formed anti-infectives development arm of UK-based biotechnology company Novacta.
Novacta Therapeutic’s lead programmes are centred around a novel class of small peptide molecules called lantibiotics, which have until now been underexploited due to the lack of adequate research tools. Novacta has three programmes based around first-in-class optimised lantibiotic variants. Its novel approach has been validated by the Wellcome Trust’s strategic translational award for its lead programme in C.difficile associated infection.
Novacta’s other arm, known as Novacta Biosystems, is focused on providing revenue generating services to industry customers. Novacta was established in 2003 and currently employs about 25 people at its premises in Welwyn, Hertfordshire.
For more information, go to www.novactabio.com.
