Poolbeg Pharma plc

Key Senior Members of Former Amryt Pharma Leadership Team join Poolbeg Pharma

Poolbeg team boosted by highly experienced executives with track record of success

9 November 2023 - Poolbeg Pharma (AIM: POLB, OTCQB: POLBF, 'Poolbeg' or the 'Company'), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company targeting diseases with a high unmet medical need, announces the appointment of key former executives of Amryt Pharma plc ('Amryt') to its leadership team.

These experienced professionals will assume pivotal roles within Poolbeg, further enhancing the Company's expertise and capabilities. Poolbeg's Chairman, Cathal Friel, co-founded both Poolbeg and Amryt Pharma plc. Poolbeg intends to follow a similar strategic approach to Amryt which focusses upon developing a number of exciting clinical assets and the acquisition of approved and marketed drugs, which not only generate revenue but also fund the development of a robust pipeline of innovative products.

David Allmond will join Poolbeg Pharma as Chief Business Officer from 1 December 2023. David was previously Chief Business Officer at Amryt and was instrumental in putting in place the global commercial infrastructure at Amryt which supported its revenue growth from c. $1.5 million when he joined in 2016, to approaching US$250 million some six years later, when Amryt was sold to Chiesi Farmaceutici S.P.A. David played a pivotal role in Amryt, acquiring the Lojuxta distribution rights for Europe and the Middle East in 2016 and joined Amyrt thereafter. Lojuxta became Amryt's first approved, revenue generating product. David also played a very significant role in Amryt's acquisition of Aegerion in 2019 and Chiasma Pharmaceuticals in 2021. Previously, he played a key role leading the EMEA team at Aegerion Pharmaceuticals and was the Corporate Vice President of Global Marketing at Celgene during a period of very rapid growth for the company having previously established Celgene's UK operating company and led their marketing and market access team for EMEA.

John McEvoy will become SVP, Chief Legal Officer, at Poolbeg from 1 January 2024. John was Global General Counsel at Amryt from 2017 and continued in his role at Amryt following its sale to Chiesi Farmaceutici S.P.A. earlier this year. John played an instrumental role in Amryt's rapid growth, leading the acquisition of Aegerion Pharmaceuticals in 2019 and Chiasma Pharmaceuticals in 2021. He also led the company's dual-listing on Nasdaq in 2020 and its subsequent sale to Chiesi. John is a qualified lawyer in the US (New York), England & Wales, and Ireland.

Laura Maher will join the Company as Vice President of Clinical Operations from 8 January 2024. Laura joined Amryt in 2018 and as Associate Director of Clinical Operations she led the clinical research programmes for multiple products in Amryt's pipeline including Filsuvez®, the world's first approved epidermolysis bullosa treatment. Laura has an extensive background in Clinical Operations having previous roles in Prothena Biosciences, Cancer Trials Ireland, and the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer.

Cathal Friel, Co-Founder and Chairman of Poolbeg Pharma, said, "I believe that Poolbeg has the potential to deliver the same success as Amryt, which I co-founded in 2015 and IPO'd on AIM in 2016 and which went on to dual list on Nasdaq in 2020 before its sale in 2023 to Chiesi Farmaceutici S.P.A. for US$1.48 billion. When we established Poolbeg Pharma we always had the ambition of creating a substantial biopharmaceutical company and over the last two and a half years we have made great progress in building an innovative and attractive pipeline.

"We welcome these exceptional individuals to the Poolbeg team as we look to accelerate this strategy, which is focussed upon developing a number of very exciting clinical assets and the acquisition of approved and marketed drugs, which not only generate revenue but also fund the development of a robust pipeline of innovative products. Their extensive experience and achievements at Amryt Pharma align with our vision of rapidly generating revenues and creating value for shareholders. We look forward to some very exciting months and years ahead for the entire Poolbeg team, its stakeholders and shareholders."

Investor presentation

Jeremy Skillington, Chief Executive Officer, Cathal Friel, Chairman, will provide a live presentation, joined by David Allmond, incoming Chief Business Officer, via the Investor Meet Company platform on Friday 10 November 2023 at 12.30pm GMT.

The presentation is open to analysts and investors, those who already follow Poolbeg on the Investor Meet Company platform will automatically be invited.

Investors can sign up to Investor Meet for free and add Poolbeg Pharma plc to their company dashboard via:

https://www.investormeetcompany.com/poolbeg-pharma-plc/register-investor

Enquiries

About Poolbeg Pharma

Poolbeg Pharma specialises in the development of innovative medicines to address the unmet need in infectious and other prevalent diseases. Poolbeg Pharma has a disciplined portfolio approach to mitigate risk, accelerate drug development, and enhance investor returns. The Company simultaneously advances multiple programmes in cost-effective clinical trials, rapidly generating early human safety and efficacy data to enable early partnering / out-licensing, with the funds generated reinvested in the pipeline. Poolbeg Pharma also uses AI to interrogate human challenge trial data sets to quickly identify new targets and drugs, leading to faster development and greater commercial appeal.

The Company is targeting the growing infectious disease market. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, infectious disease has become one of the fastest growing pharma markets and is expected to exceed $250bn by 2025. Through opportunistic identification of assets which complement Poolbeg Pharma's existing pipeline, the Company is progressing programmes in oncology and metabolic syndromes; adding disease areas with significant addressable markets.

With its initial assets from hVIVO plc, an industry leading infectious disease and human challenge trials business, Poolbeg Pharma has access to knowledge, experience, and clinical data from over 20 years of human challenge trials. The Company is using these insights to acquire new assets as well as reposition clinical stage products, reducing spend and risk. Amongst its portfolio of exciting assets, Poolbeg Pharma has a small molecule immunomodulator for severe influenza and other acute inflammatory conditions (POLB 001) which produces a highly significant reduction in p38 MAP kinase driven cytokines in a clinical setting; a first-in-class, intranasally administered RNA-based immunotherapy for respiratory virus infections (POLB 002); and a vaccine candidate for Melioidosis (POLB 003). The Company is progressing two Artificial Intelligence (AI) Programmes to add promising new assets to its pipeline as well as developing an Oral Vaccine Programme and utilising its licensed Oral Delivery Platform to target metabolic conditions.  

For more information, please go to www.poolbegpharma.com or follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn @PoolbegPharma.