C4X Discovery Appoints Piers Morgan As Chief Executive Officer
Manchester and London, UK, 12 June, 2014 – C4X Discovery (C4XD), a leader in rational drug discovery and design, today announced the appointment of Piers Morgan as Chief Executive Officer with immediate effect. Mr Morgan has also been appointed to the Company's Board of Directors. He succeeds Dr Sam Williams, who returns to his previous role as a Non-Executive Director of the Company.
C4XD has the only technology in the world that can generate accurate, experimentally-derived 3D structures of drug molecules in just a matter of days. It can be used in conjunction with existing technologies for structure-based design such as X-ray co-crystallography. Equally, it can also be used when crystallography is unavailable, as is the case for certain GPCRs and ion channels.
Prior to joining C4XD Piers served as CFO of uniQure, a world leader in gene therapy, supporting its listing on NASDAQ earlier this year. He has also previously served as CFO on the Boards of Phytopharm and BioAlliance Pharma where he led the listing on Euronext Paris. Piers began his biotech career at Arrow Therapeutics, which was acquired by AstraZeneca for $150m in 2007. Previously, Piers spent 10 years in corporate finance with Ernst & Young Lead Advisory and Close Brothers. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers and has a degree in Law and Management Studies from Cambridge University. He is Non-Executive Chairman of Trino Therapeutics Ltd, a Dublin-based immunomodulatory company.
Dr Clive Dix, Chairman of C4XD, said, 'We welcome Piers as CEO. Piers brings considerable experience to C4XD and his expertise will be invaluable as the Company enters this important next phase of its development. The Board's thanks are also due to Sam Williams for his significant contribution to the company's recent development and we look forward to Sam's continued involvement as a Non-Executive Director.'
Piers Morgan, CEO of C4XD, added, 'I am delighted to be joining C4XD at an exciting stage in its development. The Company's technology is now beginning to generate exciting new data, both in collaborations with pharma and on in-house projects. I believe that increasing acceptance will generate huge benefits in the field of small molecule drug development, enabling the discovery of superior drug candidates much more quickly and efficiently. I look forward to leading C4XD as it continues to build on its innovative technology.'
--ENDS—
For further information please contact: C4X Discovery Ltd
Piers Morgan, CEO 07912 293832
Sam Williams, Non-Executive Director 07881 588947
Ben Atwell / John Dineen, FTI 020 3727 1136
[email protected]
About C4X Discovery Ltd
C4X Discovery is a Manchester-based company focused on optimising drug discovery and design. It was founded in 2008 as a spin-out from the University of Manchester. The company uses its NMR-based technology to solve the dynamic 3D structures of a broad range of biomolecules, including peptides, cofactors, oligonucleotides and carbohydrates. Since C4X Discovery's NMR technology shows what shapes active molecules prefer to adopt, it provides high-quality templates for drug discovery and design, and valuable information for drug candidate optimisation. In addition, the data is generated faster and more reliably than standard techniques such as X-ray co-crystallography or molecular modelling. C4X Discovery is using its technology in collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry and to build its own proprietary pipeline of high-value therapeutic candidates. It has been funded since inception by life science investor Aquarius Equity Partners. www.c4xdiscovery.com.