London, UK, 04 November 2010 – PolyTherics Limited (“PolyTherics”), an innovator in precision engineering of proteins, is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr John Burt as Chief Business Officer.
John has broad business and corporate development experience and was previously CEO of Thiakis, a company which he co-founded with Professor Steve Bloom of Imperial College in 2004 and sold to Wyeth in 2008. John’s prior roles have included positions with Imperial Innovations, GSK and Vernalis and he has been active in advising early-stage biotech companies on strategy, finance and business development issues.
Keith Powell, CEO commented “We are delighted that John has joined us and are sure that his experience, notably with Thiakis and GSK, will be invaluable. We now have a management team which, together with our chairman, Ken Cunningham, has the breadth of experience with both biotech and large pharma companies to take PolyTherics to the next stage in its evolution.”
PolyTherics has substantial expertise in the targeted modification of proteins and proteins with therapeutic potential through its platform of site specific PEGylation technologies. Its most advanced programme is an interferon alpha PEGylated using its HiPEG™ technology that has just entered development.
PolyTherics Limited
PolyTherics is a biopharmaceutical company that applies precision chemistry to develop improved protein and peptide-based drugs. It received investment of £2.3 million from Imperial Innovations Group plc, Longbow Capital LLP and The Capital Fund in June 2007 and a further £3.0 million investment from the same syndicate in February 2010.
PolyTherics has developed three proprietary technologies for attaching the polymer poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) to any therapeutic peptide or protein in a targeted fashion. PEGylation slows elimination from the body, thereby improving half-life and potentially reducing drug treatment frequency, decreasing side effects and improving patient compliance.
PEGylated products derived from PolyTherics’ technologies are more homogeneous than those derived from traditional methods, resulting in reduced complexity of downstream processing, more consistent product quality and cost-effective manufacture. PEGylation is an established method for improving drugs and nine PEGylated products are already approved for therapeutic use worldwide.
For more information, please visit: www.polytherics.co.uk
For more information:
Tim Watson, Tony Stephenson College Hill Tel: +44 (0)207 866 7861 Email: polytherics@collegehill.com
