Mission Therapeutics, a drug discovery and development company focused on treating mitochondrial diseases, fibrosis and neurodegenerative disorders by selectively inhibiting deubiquitylating enzymes (DUBs), has appointed Dr Nick Edmunds as Vice President, Head of DUB Discovery.
Dr Edmunds has over 15 years’ pharmaceutical industry experience and a track record of delivery across small molecule preclinical drug discovery and early clinical development. He joined Mission as a Senior Director in September from AstraZeneca, where he had previously held a number of senior roles in Drug Safety and Metabolism, including Senior Director, Head of New Modalities and Director of Safety Pharmacology.
Prior to that, he was a Research Fellow at Pfizer Global Research and Development, Groton, USA and the Cardiovascular Discipline Leader in Global Safety Pharmacology at Pfizer Global Research and Development, Sandwich, UK. Dr Edmunds carried out his postdoctoral research studies in the Department of Physiology, University of Birmingham, UK. He also holds a PhD from the Pharmacy and Pharmacology Department, University of Bath, UK and a BSc in Pharmacology from the University of Leeds, UK.
Dr Anker Lundemose, Mission's CEO, said: "I am very pleased to welcome Nick to Mission Therapeutics’ Management team, especially at this exciting time following the announcement of a major collaboration with AbbVie. Nick has the right skills, experience, enthusiasm and mindset to provide superb leadership to our research team and to advance our discovery DUB programmes."
His internal appointment follows Dr Anne Phelan’s decision to step down as Executive Vice President of Research.