Midatech, a UK-based developer of nanomedicines based on its gold-nanoparticle (GNP) technology, has appointed Rolf Stahel as Chairman and Craig Cook as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Medical Officer (CMO).
Stahel has more than 40 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, of which 20 were spent at CEO and Board level in public and private life science companies across Europe, the US and India. He was Chief Executive of Shire from 1994 to 2003, joining the company from Wellcome plc (now GSK) where he spent 27 years in positions of increasing seniority.
Stahel is currently Non-executive Chairman of Connexios Life Sciences, an Indian drug discovery company focused on new drugs for the treatment of metabolic diseases. He has also been Non-executive Chairman of EUSA Pharma, Cosmo Pharmaceuticals, PowderMed and Newron Pharmaceuticals.
Cook has more than 15 years of experience in senior management, business development and clinical product development roles in the pharma, biomedical and high technology sectors.
He joins Midatech from SpaceCode Technologies, an early-stage provider of IT solutions to the healthcare industry, which he co-founded in 2005.
Prior to that, Cook held senior management positions at Novartis and Serono International (now Merck Serono). He is an adviser to Ippon Capital, a Swiss private equity firm specialising in the healthcare sector, which led the latest investment round in Midatech.