Santhera Appoints Stephanie Brown as President North America and Member of the Executive Management Team
Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR
Pratteln, Switzerland, November 4, 2021 – Santhera Pharmaceuticals (SIX: SANN) announces the appointment of Stephanie Brown as President North America and a member of Santhera’s Executive Management team, effective December 1, 2021.
Stephanie Brown joins Santhera with an extensive background leading commercial businesses and global franchises in North America and Europe. Most recently, she was Senior Vice President and Head of the Rare Diseases Franchise, North America at Ipsen Pharmaceuticals. In this role, she was responsible for establishing a new rare disease business unit to market and launch medicines to treat rare conditions. Prior to Ipsen, Stephanie was Vice President and US Head of Novartis’ Neuroscience Franchise with responsibility for commercial marketing, sales and operations of this important business and had oversight of market access, patient services and medical affairs. Earlier in her career, Stephanie held various leadership roles at Takeda Pharmaceuticals US, Biogen, Genentech and Merck. She earned a B.S. in Chemistry with Biology from Mount Allison University, Canada, and an MBA from Heriot-Watt University, Scotland.
“We are pleased to welcome Stephanie to Santhera as President North America and as a member of our executive leadership team. Her commercial expertise and impressive achievements in building successful businesses, including in rare diseases and neuroscience, will be vital as we target the next stage of our development,” said Dario Eklund, CEO of Santhera. “In her role, she will be instrumental in the upcoming NDA submission and the preparation of the launch of vamorolone in the US, the product’s first launch country. We look forward to working with her to successfully drive and execute our ambitious growth plans.”
“I am honored to join Santhera at this important time in the Company’s development,” said Stephanie Brown, designate President North America of Santhera. “I’m driven by a passion for patients and for delivering strong results. I look forward to bringing my unique perspective to the team to ensure that we seize opportunities for growth and value creation.”
Stephanie Brown will be based at Santhera’s US subsidiary in Burlington (MA, USA) where her initial focus will be on building the existing team and intensifying the pre-commercialization activities in anticipation of a US launch of vamorolone, for which Santhera plans to submit an NDA to the FDA in Q1-2022.
About Santhera
Santhera Pharmaceuticals (SIX: SANN) is a Swiss specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative medicines for rare neuromuscular and pulmonary diseases with high unmet medical need. Santhera has an exclusive license for all indications worldwide to vamorolone, a first-in-class dissociative steroid with novel mode of action, which was investigated in a pivotal study in patients with DMD as an alternative to standard corticosteroids. The clinical stage pipeline also includes lonodelestat (POL6014) to treat cystic fibrosis (CF) and other neutrophilic pulmonary diseases as well as an exploratory gene therapy approach targeting congenital muscular dystrophies. Santhera out-licensed rights to its first approved product, Raxone® (idebenone), outside North America and France for the treatment of Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) to Chiesi Group. For further information, please visit www.santhera.com.
Raxone® is a trademark of Santhera Pharmaceuticals.
For further information please contact:
public-relations@santhera.com or
Eva Kalias, Head External Communications
Phone: +41 79 875 27 80
eva.kalias@santhera.com
Disclaimer / Forward-looking statements
This communication does not constitute an offer or invitation to subscribe for or purchase any securities of Santhera Pharmaceuticals Holding AG. This publication may contain certain forward-looking statements concerning the Company and its business. Such statements involve certain risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such statements. Readers should therefore not place undue reliance on these statements, particularly not in connection with any contract or investment decision. The Company disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
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