Mission Therapeutics appoints Dr Nick Edmunds to VP, Head of DUB Discovery

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, with immediate effect.

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.

Dr Anker Lundemose, added: “I would like to thank Anne for providing excellent leadership to our research team. We will miss her and wish her all the very best with her future endeavours.”

Dr Nick Edmunds, newly appointed, Vice President, Head of DUB Discovery at Mission Therapeutics, said: “Mission has been leading the way with its research in the DUBs field and so I am really looking forward to being part of the management team. The potential of the in-house programmes as well as the recent collaboration with AbbVie make this an exciting time to help take the Company forward.”



About Mission Therapeutics

Mission Therapeutics is an early-stage drug development company targeting the ubiquitin pathway for the treatment of neurodegenerative disease, rare mitochondrial diseases and fibrosis. The Company has built a leading platform for the discovery and development of first-in-class, small-molecule drugs that selectively target deubiquitylating enzymes (DUBs) – an emerging drug class that is attracting significant commercial interest in the area of protein homeostasis.

In November 2018, Mission Therapeutics and AbbVie entered into a collaboration in the research and preclinical development of specified DUB inhibitors for the treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease. Mission has strong links with key academic and research centers, including Prof. Jackson’s Cancer Research UK Laboratories at the University of Cambridge Gurdon Institute, and leading UK centres in neurodegenerative diseases. The Company is managed by a team with broad international, commercial and clinical-science experience.

In February 2016, the Company completed an $86m financing that was led by Imperial Innovations (now part of IP Group) and Woodford Patient Capital Trust and included participation from existing investors Sofinnova Partners, Roche Venture Fund, Pfizer Venture Investments and SR One. Mission Therapeutics was founded in 2011 and is based at the Babraham Research Campus, Cambridge, UK.




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