CoCo Therapeutics, a newly formed UK biotechnology company, has appointed Dr Steve Butcher as Chief Operating Officer and has announced the members of its Clinical and Scientific Advisory Group.
The London-based company is focused on the discovery of new drugs for Alzheimer’s disease directed towards retinoic acid receptor-α.
Dr Butcher was previously a founder and Scientific Director of the Fujisawa Institute of Neuroscience, before holding management positions of increasing responsibility at Pharmacia. More recently he was CSO at BioImage and COO at TopoTarget.
In addition to Butcher, the Clinical and Scientific Advisory Group comprises Clive Ballard, Jonathan Corcoran, Roy Lobb and Andrew Wood.
Ballard is Professor of Age Related Diseases, Co-Director of the Biomedical Unit for Dementia at the Institute of Psychiatry, Co-Director of the Wolfson Centre for Age Related Diseases, King’s College London and Director of Research for the Alzheimer’s Society.
Corcoran is the founding scientist of CoCo Therapeutics, Professor of Molecular Neurobiology and Director of the Neuroscience Drug Discovery Unit, Wolfson Centre for Age Related Diseases, King’s College London.
Lobb is a consultant to the biotech industry, specialising in early discovery research. He was a co-founder of Avila Therapeutics.
Wood is a venture partner at Advent Venture Partners and formerly had responsibilities for European CNS R&D and business development at Eli Lilly & Co.
Commenting on these appointments, Butcher said: ‘We are very pleased to be supported by such an expert group of advisors as we progress our RAR-alpha agonist programme for Alzheimer’s disease.’
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia, affecting around 5.3 million people in the US, 417,000 people in the UK, and many millions of others worldwide. It is estimated that this incidence will more than double by 2050, should current trends continue.
