OMEICOS Therapeutics Appoints Dr Simon Russell as Chief Business Officer

OMEICOS strengthens management team with the appointment of biopharma business development veteran

BERLIN--()--OMEICOS Therapeutics, a Berlin-based biopharmaceutical company developing first-in-class small molecule therapeutics for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular and ophthalmic diseases, today announced that Dr Simon Russell has been appointed as Chief Business Officer. Creating this new leadership role reflects the growing importance of OMEICOS’ product pipeline with its lead program OMT-28 progressing towards clinical proof-of-concept and final dose-finding in Atrial Fibrillation patients as a prerequisite for a fast transition into pivotal trials.

Commenting on the appointment, Dr Robert Fischer, CEO/CSO of OMEICOS Therapeutics said: “I’m delighted to welcome Simon to the OMEICOS team at such an important and exciting time in the growth of the company. His extensive industry experience of unlocking the full commercial potential of scientific innovation makes him a perfect fit for OMEICOS as we advance our lead compound in Atrial Fibrillation and continue expanding our development pipeline of synthetic epoxyeicosanoid analogs.

Dr Russell has over thirty years of experience in the biopharma sector and has a strong track record of leading teams through key business decisions and strategic milestones across a range of therapy areas.

Following his early career in R&D at AstraZeneca, he held a number of senior commercial and brand leadership roles at both AstraZeneca and Novartis Pharma AG including Head of Strategic Marketing, Biologics.

In 2012 he was appointed Chief Business Officer of Creabilis Ltd and was responsible for commercial and business development activities for this VC-backed biotech including negotiating term sheets, raising finance, and preparation for a potential IPO. In 2016 he played a key role in the negotiation and sale of Creabilis to Sienna Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. in the US and the subsequent IPO of the company on the NASDAQ in 2017.

As Entrepreneur-in-Residence with BaseLaunch, the incubator group in Basel, he advised local start-up companies and as a result, co-founded a new biotech company in 2019.

Dr Russell has a PhD in organic chemistry from Southampton University and an MA (Hons) in Chemistry from the University of Oxford. He is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Dr Russell added: “OMEICOS has a very promising therapeutic platform targeting one of nature’s most important cell-protective pathways and I’m thrilled to be joining them in their journey to bring this family of first-in-class therapeutics to market. I look forward to leveraging my business development and commercial experience to support the Company's strategic vision.

About OMEICOS

OMEICOS Therapeutics is a spin-off company from the Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in Berlin. The company has discovered a series of metabolically robust synthetic analogues of omega-3 fatty acid-derived epoxyeicosanoids that have the potential to treat inflammatory, cardiovascular and other diseases. Epoxyeicosanoids, as a newly described class of bioactive lipid mediators, activate cell type-specific endogenous pathways that promote organ and tissue protection. OMEICOS’ small molecules are orally available and show improved biological activity and pharmacokinetic properties compared to their natural counterparts. OMEICOS’ technology is based on ground-breaking scientific results in the field of omega-3 fatty acid metabolism and physiology obtained by the companies’ founders, Dr. Wolf-Hagen Schunck, Prof. John. R. Falck, Prof. Dominik Mueller and Dr. Robert Fischer. The companies’ research activities are supported by a grant from the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). www.omeicos.com

Contacts

OMEICOS Therapeutics GmbH:
Dr. Robert Fischer,
CEO/CSO
+49 (0) 30 9489 4810
r.fischer@omeicos.com 
www.omeicos.com

Media Requests:
MacDougall
Mario Brkulj or Amanda Whelan
+49 89 2424 3494 or +1 781-235-3060
omeicos@macbiocom.com

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Contacts

OMEICOS Therapeutics GmbH:
Dr. Robert Fischer,
CEO/CSO
+49 (0) 30 9489 4810
r.fischer@omeicos.com 
www.omeicos.com

Media Requests:
MacDougall
Mario Brkulj or Amanda Whelan
+49 89 2424 3494 or +1 781-235-3060
omeicos@macbiocom.com