French biopharmaceutical firm Pharnext has appointed Niall Murphy as Chief Scientific Officer and Pierre Schwich as Chief Financial Officer.
Murphy has more than 22 years of experience in neurological and psychological research co-authoring more than 70 peer-reviewed publications on topics including addiction, Parkinson's disease, neuropathic pain, depression and anxiety.
He is an adjunct full professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioural Sciences and a member of the Brain Research Institute at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Prior to this he was a unit leader at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute.
Schwich has more than 35 years of financial leadership experience in both public and private companies, and specific expertise in financial strategy for fast-growing organisations.
Prior to joining Pharnext, Schwich was Chief Financial Officer at Cellectis. As CFO and corporate secretary, he also led the initial public offerings at Oceasoft, Genesys Conferencing and HighCo after being Investment Director at 3i.
Schwich also has expertise in M&A transactions, from targeting to integration, negotiation and structuring, as well as successful experiences in building and managing financial and administrative teams.
Daniel Cohen, Chairman, Chief Executive and co-founder of Pharnext, said: 'Pharnext is lucky to be adding two executives with the experience of Mr Schwich and Dr Murphy as we continue to focus on the successful development of PXT-3003 in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A and PXT-864 in Alzheimer's disease and other neurological indications.'
