Anthera Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ANTH) announced some changes in leadership positions on March 7.
The board of directors nominated James Pennington, M.D. as Anthera’s temporary Chief Medical Officer on Monday, March 7. The appointment was prompted by the resignation of Colin Hislop, who was the previous CMO before he announced that he will be stepping down on April 1.
Craig Thompson, the company’s President, and COO stated that there has been a lot of progress in Anthera’s development program during Hislop’s time in office. Thompson also pointed out that it was during Hislop’s tenure that Sollpura® and blisibimod reached the late stages of their clinical trials. He wished the exiting CMO success in his future undertakings.
Thompson also acknowledged that Mr. Pennington has been working at Anthera for a long time and that he is well vast with the company’s clinical programs. He also noted that Pennington’s commercialization and regulatory experience will play a vital role towards the proper management of Anthera’s development programs and objectives for the current year.
Dr. Pennington has more than 40 years of experience in commercialization and successful clinical development. He has overseen more than 14 drug authorizations in the US and ten approvals outside the US especially for both large and small molecules treatments. His experience is, therefore, enough to match the skill required of a chief medical officer.
Following his appointment, Dr. Pennington stated that working alongside a dedicated team of professionals at Anthera has been a fulfilling experience. He also added that he feels honored to be selected as the interim CMO for the company. His closing remark was that he believes that the team is well-suited to create new treatment options for patients whose medical needs have not been fulfilled.
Pennington has been an employee of Anthera since 2007 where he became the firm’s Executive VP and Chief Medical Officer before he was repositioned to the senior clinical fellow position in2010. He previously worked at CoTherix before joining Anthera.
