Heptares Appoints Tim Tasker as Chief Medical Officer

LONDON and BOSTON, January 9, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Increases Focus on Clinical Development of Novel GPCR-targeted Drug Candidates

Heptares Therapeutics, the leading GPCR structure-guided drug discovery and development company, announces the appointment of Dr Tim Tasker as Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and Vice President of Development. Dr Tasker will lead the Company's clinical development activities as it advances its rich pipeline of novel GPCR-targeted agents in multiple therapeutic areas. He takes over from Dr David McGibney, who returns to his role as a senior clinical advisor to the Company.

Dr Tasker is a physician and clinical pharmacologist with more than 30 years of industry experience from both large pharmaceutical and small biotechnology companies. He spent over 20 years at GlaxoSmithKline and led all of its Phase 1 Clinical Research Units (in the US, UK, Europe and Australia), which supported the Centres of Excellence in Drug Discovery across all therapeutic areas. After GSK, he joined Evotec as Executive VP of Clinical Development, at which he was instrumental in advancing novel compounds to Phase 2 proof of concept studies. Dr Tasker then set up his own consulting firm providing high-level, early drug development expertise to companies in Europe, Australia and Japan. Dr Tasker is a Fellow of the UK Royal College of Physicians and of the UK Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine.

Tim Tasker said: "Heptares is at a very exciting stage in its development, having recently initiated its first clinical study with the first ever fully selective M1 receptor agonist for improving cognitive function in Alzheimer's disease patients. In addition, Heptares has built a unique capability to discover new medicines across multiple indications using its GPCR structure-based drug design platform. I look forward to working with the Company as it advances these novel medicines towards clinical proof of concept over the next few years."

"It reflects well on Heptares that we have been able to attract a CMO of Tim's calibre and reputation. His experience in developing new compounds from preclinical into clinical development is a valuable addition to Heptares as we dedicate increasing efforts to advancing our rich pipeline of GPCR-targeted medicines," said Malcolm Weir, Heptares CEO. "I would like to take this opportunity to thank David McGibney for his important contributions to building a first-class clinical development capability at Heptares and we look forward to his continued guidance as an advisor to the company."

About Heptares Therapeutics

Heptares creates new medicines targeting clinically important, yet historically challenging, GPCRs (G protein-coupled receptors), a superfamily of drug receptors linked to a wide range of human diseases. Leveraging our proprietary structure-based drug design technology platform, we have built an exciting pipeline of novel drug candidates with the potential to transform the treatment of serious diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, ADHD, diabetes, schizophrenia, and migraine. Our pharmaceutical partners include Cubist, MorphoSys, Takeda, AstraZeneca and MedImmune, and we are backed by Clarus Ventures, MVM Life Science Partners, Novartis Venture Fund, the Stanley Family Foundation and Takeda Ventures. To learn more about Heptares, please visit http://www.heptares.com

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