Creabilis Appoints Dr Simon Russell as Chief Business Officer

Creabilis SA has announced that Dr Simon Russell has been appointed as Chief Business Officer.

Dr Russell joins Creabilis from Novartis Pharma AG where he held a number global strategic marketing roles and most recently Head of Global Marketing for ILARIS (canakinumab).

He was previously Head of Strategic Marketing, Biologics where he was responsible for the introduction of a range of novel methods and commercial strategies across the Novartis biologics portfolio.

Dr Russell joined Novartis from AstraZeneca where, as Global Brand Strategy Director, Biologics he led the team responsible for strategic commercial input to the biologics portfolio in partnership with Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT) and MedImmune and played a key role in the CAT acquisition.

He began his pharmaceutical industry career as a medicinal chemist at ICI Pharmaceuticals and progressed through a number of product, clinical development, marketing and business development roles with Zeneca and AstraZeneca.

Dr Russell has a PhD in organic chemistry from Southampton University and an MA (Hons) in Chemistry from the University of Oxford. He is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Dr Simon Russell, commenting on his appointment, said: “With its lead candidate, CT327, advancing through the clinic in psoriasis and atopic dermatitis and its broader pipeline showing a great deal of promise, I’m thrilled to be joining Creabilis at this time. I look forward to working with the Company to maximize the commercial potential of its products and technology.”

Dr Eliot Forster CEO of Creabilis, said: “Simon is the latest in a series of high calibre additions to our senior team at Creabilis. Working with our research and development colleagues, his commercial insights will allow us to differentiate our lead molecules from competitors, all in anticipation of upcoming important project data. I’m delighted to welcome Simon to Creabilis.”