Addex Pharmaceuticals Appoints Dr Bharatt Chowrira as CEO

17-Aug-2011 - Switzerland

Addex Pharmaceuticals announced the appointment of Dr Bharatt Chowrira as its Chief Executive Officer. Dr Chowrira has a strong track record in the biopharmaceutical industry with over 17-years of experience, combining a unique blend of research, licensing, corporate development, operations and legal expertise.

Dr Chowrira joins Addex after serving at Nektar Therapeutics, a NASDAQ-traded U.S. biopharmaceutical company developing therapeutics based on advanced polymer conjugate chemistry, as Senior Vice President & Chief Operating Officer until January 2011. Dr Chowrira’s responsibilities included, managing Nektar’s research, chemistry manufacturing control, manufacturing, operations, business development, licensing and marketing. He led a team that established several revenue-generating strategic alliances. He also led efforts to streamline, realign and integrate operations across research, manufacturing, business development, marketing and multiple R&D sites. This focused strategy and streamlined operations at Nektar resulted in the development of a robust clinical and preclinical pipeline and generation of significant shareholder value.

Prior to Nektar, Dr Chowrira served as Executive Director, Worldwide Licensing & External Research at Merck & Co. He was responsible for identifying and evaluating product and technology partnering opportunities across all therapeutics areas in Asia. His team attracted strategic partnership agreements with several leading firms in the region. Dr Chowrira also served as Vice President of Sirna Therapeutics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck, where his responsibilities included strategic planning and licensing.

At Sirna Therapeutics, which specialized in discovery and development of RNAi-based drugs, Dr Chowrira played pivotal roles in the restructuring and re-launch of the company, the development of its pipeline and intellectual property portfolio, all of which generated significant shareholder value and led to its acquisition by Merck & Co., Inc.

Dr Chowrira earned his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from the University of Vermont and his J.D. degree from the College of Law at the University of Denver. He is a registered U.S. patent attorney and a licensed member of the Colorado Bar Association. Dr Chowrira also serves on the Board of Traversa Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company based in California.

Addex also announced the dissolution of the transition committee, which was led by Addex Vice-Chairman Vincent Lawton and included André Mueller as well as Dr Ray Hill, Director. The transition committee was set up as an interim measure following the departure of the former CEO. In addition, Mr. Mueller has reverted to Non-executive Chairman from Executive Chairman.

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