Verona Pharma has announced a clinical development services agreement with QuintilesIMS for Verona’s RPL554, an inhaled PDE3/PDE4 inhibitor for the treatment of acute exacerbations in COPD patients. The company also said that it is planning to develop RPL554 as both an MDI and as a DPI in partnership with two European technology companies.
In addition, Verona announced the appointment of former Richard Hennings to the Company’s senior management team as Commercial Director. Hennings has previously held positions in marketing and commercial strategy at AstraZeneca and Gilead.
In March 2016, Verona said that a Phase 2a trial of nebulized RPL554 showed that a range of doses had similar bronchodilation effects to a 7.5 mg dose of salbutamol (albuterol). Once the DPI and MDI formulations have been developed, the company said, pre-clinical studies of those formulations will be initiated.
Verona Pharma CEO Jan-Anders Karlsson commented, “We are delighted to welcome Richard to the Verona Pharma team and look forward to advancing our market focus and commercial plans under his leadership. Richard brings extensive experience in commercial planning and launch preparations, as well as brand building of innovative respiratory products in the US and Europe. In addition, we believe our new collaborations to develop RPL554 in both DPI and MDI inhaler formulations could improve the product’s potential to address the unmet needs of people with difficult-to-manage respiratory diseases such as COPD, and, if approved, could open up commercial opportunities in out-patients that are able to use hand-held inhaler devices.”
Read the Verona Pharma press release on its agreement with Quintiles.
Read the Verona Pharma press release on the appointment of Richard Hennings.
