Verona Pharma plc, announces Mr. Andrew Fisher has today joined the Company as General Counsel, and member of the Executive Management Team.
Mr. Fisher is an accomplished lawyer with more than 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry. He brings a wealth of legal and strategic expertise supporting global, pre-clinical and clinical development, manufacturing and commercialization including launching four pulmonary therapies. Most recently, he founded and led a consulting practice focused on providing strategic advice to start-up companies. Previously, from 2001 until 2018, he was an early team member at United Therapeutics Corporation where he served for 17 years holding roles of increasing responsibility including Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer and Deputy General Counsel while leading successful patent defense strategy. During this period, the company grew from an early-stage business to a company with 850 employees, a market capitalization of $4.7 billion and five marketed products. He has a JD from George Washington University and a BA from University of Michigan.
“We are delighted to welcome Andy to Verona,” said David Zaccardelli, Pharm. D., President and Chief Executive Officer. “His broad expertise and leadership spanning all areas of legal affairs in commercial life sciences and intellectual property portfolio management and strategy will be highly valuable as we finalize preparations for the planned US commercialization of ensifentrine, if approved, later this year.”
Verona Pharma also announces that Ms. Claire Poll is retiring as General Counsel, effective March 4, 2024.
Dr. Zaccardelli added: “We would like to thank Claire for her leadership and recognise her significant contributions to Verona Pharma’s successful development since its inception. During this time, she played a key role in the Company’s growth by providing guidance through our NASDAQ listing, several financings and the progression of our novel product candidate, ensifentrine, through clinical trials into review for potential US approval.”