H0RSHOLM, Denmark, August 15 /PRNewswire/ -- LifeCycle Pharma A/S has appointed Dr. Flemming 0rnskov as new President and CEO. Dr. 0rnskov is an internationally recognized senior executive with substantial experience within global product launches and commercialization in the pharmaceutical industry.
“We are proud that it has been possible for us to attract an international management capacity such as Dr. 0rnskov as new President and CEO of LifeCycle Pharma. The company has a late-stage product pipeline, and has therefore reached a stage where it lacks a management profile with comprehensive experience within the area of commercialization of new products, including establishing strategic partnerships,” said Dr. Claus Braestrup, President and CEO, H. Lundbeck A/S, and a member of LifeCycle Pharma’s Board of Directors.
“LifeCycle Pharma possesses with its MeltDose® technology and current product pipeline the characteristics required to become a significant player in the pharmaceutical market. By applying its MeltDose® technology, LifeCycle Pharma is capable of developing patented and improved versions of existing products at a lower cost compared to traditional pharma companies, and with a higher probability of clinical success. This is a professional challenge which I could not turn down,” said Dr. 0rnskov.
Dr. 0rnskov takes over as President and CEO after Jan Moller Mikkelsen who will be leaving LifeCycle Pharma. “Jan Moller Mikkelsen has unique skills as an entrepreneur and has been instrumental in establishing and developing LifeCycle Pharma,” said Dr. Braestrup. He continues, “I’m impressed by the results that Jan Moller Mikkelsen and the rest of the LifeCycle Pharma team have achieved over the past four years.”
Dr. 0rnskov was elected Chairman of LifeCycle Pharma’s Board of Directors in October 2005. He will soon formally take over his new position and will at that time resign from the Board of Directors. Following that, LifeCycle Pharma’s Board of Directors will consist of: Dr. Claus Braestrup, President and CEO, H. Lundbeck A/S; Dr. Jean Deleage, Partner and Founder of Alta Partners; Dr. Gerard Soula, Founder of Flamel Technologies; and Dr. Thomas Dyrberg, Partner, Novo Ventures.
Dr. 0rnskov comes from a position as President and CEO, and member of the Board of Directors, of Ikaria, Inc., a privately-owned biotech company in Seattle, USA. He will continue being a member of Ikaria’s Board of Director’s after taking up his new position. Prior to his appointment at Ikaria, Inc. in 2005 Dr. 0rnskov had been employed for over ten years with some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, most recently as President for Novartis’ Ophthalmics in Basel, Switzerland, and member of the company’s Pharma Executive Committee. The Ophthalmics business unit employs approximately 1,000 people globally, spanning R&D, manufacturing, marketing and sales, and generates annual revenues of approximately USD 850m. Prior to this position, Dr. 0rnskov was VP and Head of the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Products Group at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. in the USA franchise generating annual sales of approx. USD 1.5bn. Dr. 0rnskov obtained his MD degree from Copenhagen University and also holds an MBA from INSEAD and an MPH from Harvard University.
About LifeCycle Pharma A/S:
LifeCycle Pharma A/S was founded in June, 2002 as a spin-off from H. Lundbeck A/S. Its investors include H. Lundbeck A/S, Novo A/S, Nordic Biotech, Alta Partners (USA), and Adamant Biomedical Investments (Switzerland), as well as the LifeCycle executives. The company is based in H0rsholm, Denmark, and currently employs a staff of 40.
The company utilizes its proprietary MeltDose® technology to improve the bioavailability of known and established compounds so that patients can absorb them better and more effectively. LifeCycle Pharma’s pipeline contains five products in clinical trials, of which the first - the cholesterol-lowering LCP-FenoChol® - is expected to reach the US market in early 2008.
The core competence of LifeCycle Pharma is to select appropriate drugs, improve their formulation, conduct clinical tests and obtain approvals within a short time frame, thus substantially reducing financial risk and time to market compared with other pharma biotech companies.
For more information about LifeCycle Pharma A/S, please visit www.lcpharma.com
Source: LifeCycle Pharma A/S
