CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa., Jan. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- NuPathe Inc., a privately held specialty pharmaceutical company, today announced the election of Michael Cola, president, Specialty Pharmaceutical Business, Shire Pharmaceuticals, to the NuPathe Board of Directors. Mr. Cola will also serve as a member of the Company’s Audit Committee.
Mr. Cola has more than 20 years of international pharmaceutical industry experience. He has served in leadership roles in product development and commercialization, mergers and consolidations, and general management. As president of Shire he is responsible for all aspects of the company’s global CNS, GI, Renal and Dermatology businesses.
Previously, Mr. Cola was group president life sciences of Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. and held progressively senior positions at Astra/Merck and AstraZeneca. As vice president, global clinical operations at AstraZeneca, he was responsible for a range of late stage clinical development resources. Mr. Cola was also instrumental in the spinout and growth of AstraMerck as well as the creation of an independent joint venture with Astra. Mr. Cola received a B.A. degree in biology and physics from Ursinus College and an M.S. in biomedical engineering from Drexel University.
“We are very pleased that an experienced specialty pharmaceutical industry professional of Mike Cola’s caliber has agreed to join the NuPathe board of directors. His extensive commercial, product development and business growth expertise will be extremely valuable as NuPathe continues to advance toward late stage development and product commercialization opportunities in the years ahead,” said Jane Hollingsworth, chief executive officer of NuPathe.
NuPathe also recently expanded the company’s senior management team with the addition of pharmaceutical industry veteran Mark W. Pierce, MD, PhD., as the company’s vice president research and development. Prior to joining NuPathe, Dr. Pierce was senior vice president research and development at Pfizer Inc. Earlier in his career he also held senior level positions in clinical development at Abbott Laboratories and Warner Lambert.
“As we continue to advance our development programs in the months ahead, the wide range of experience that both Dr. Pierce and Mike Cola bring to NuPathe will play an important role in guiding our efforts and in supporting the growth of our company,” Ms. Hollingsworth added.
About NuPathe
NuPathe specializes in the development of therapeutics for the treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders including migraine, Parkinson’s disease and schizophrenia. NuPathe’s lead product, NP101, uses SmartRelief(TM), the company’s novel, transdermal patch technology, to deliver sumatriptan, a widely-used therapy for the treatment of acute migraine. Pending regulatory review and approval, NP101 would be the first ever migraine treatment based on a transdermal patch delivery. Phase I clinical results for NP101 have thus far demonstrated rapid delivery of migraine medication and improved pharmacokinetics compared to current standard of care.
For additional information visit www.nupathe.com.
NuPathe Inc.
CONTACT: Kim Angelastro at Berry & Company, +1-212-253-8881,kangelastro@berrypr.com
Web site: http://www.nupathe.com/
