Selcia, a leading provider of contract research services, today appointed Simon Saxby as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He will assume his position in April and takes over from Dr Hans Fliri who retains his role as Chairman of the Board. Selcia also announce the appointment of Dr Andreas Rummelt as a Non-Executive Director.

Chairman Dr Hans Fliri said, "I am very pleased to announce our two high profile appointments. Simon Saxby, until recently CEO of Cobra Biomanufacturing PLC and who joined Selcia’s Board last year, brings successful leadership and executive management experience to the role of Selcia’s CEO. Andreas Rummelt, formerly CEO of Sandoz and a member of the Novartis Executive Committee was recently appointed as Partner and CEO of the Swiss management consulting firm InterPharmaLink AG. Andreas is recognised as a global expert in drug development and will further enhance the strategic strength of Selcia’s Board. Both Simon and Andreas have a wealth of international experience and connections in the pharmaceutical industry and this expertise will be highly significant as Selcia plans its growth and expansion in the future".

Commenting on his appointment as CEO, Simon Saxby said, “With the increasing trend of outsourcing in the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors, this is an exciting time to be joining Selcia. I welcome the opportunity to work with Selcia’s management team and scientists as we expand the business through strategic partnerships built around the provision of high value services to our important and valued customers”.

On joining the Board, Dr Andreas Rummelt said,“Selcia has a track record of providing excellent custom radiolabelling and drug discovery services. I am pleased to bring my drug development, contract manufacturing and partnering expertise to support Selcia’s management team. I look forward to working with the Board to help define Selcia’s strategy for further expansion in the rapidly changing life sciences sector”.

About Simon Saxby
Simon Saxby was until recently Vice-President Biologics of Recipharm Cobra Biologics prior to that he was CEO of Cobra Biomanufacturing PLC (from 2008). He has 25 years experience in the biotechnology industry, including positions as CEO of Alpha Biologics Sdn Bhd, a Malaysian contract manufacturing organisation. Simon was also founder of Murex Diagnostics, which was sold to Abbott Laboratories, and a co-founder and operations director of Quantum Biosystems Ltd. He has led the development of a CMO business for Unisyn Technologies in Massachusetts, USA for 4 years and has held appointments with KS Biomedix Plc, Xenova Plc and Scynexis Europe Ltd.

About Andreas Rummelt
Dr Rummelt is Partner and CEO of InterPharmaLink AG, Basel, and has more than 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, notably in drug development, technical operations, quality assurance, global manufacturing and generics. Dr Rummelt was a member of the Executive Committee of Novartis from 2006 to 2010, where he most recently served as Group Head of Quality Assurance and Technical Operations until his resignation in 2010. Dr Rummelt joined Sandoz Pharma Ltd in Switzerland in 1985 and held various positions of increasing responsibility in drug development, lastly as Global Head of Technical Research & Development. From 1999 to 2004, Dr Rummelt served as Global Head of Technical Operations of the Novartis Pharmaceuticals Division. From 2004 to 2008, he was CEO of Sandoz, the generics division of Novartis. Andreas Rummelt is also a member of the Board of Directors of Alexion Pharmaceuticals, USA (NASDAQ) and Famar Health Care Services, GR. Dr Rummelt gained his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany.

About Selcia
Selcia is a privately held company providing both carbon-14 (C-14) radiolabelling and integrated drug discovery services, operating from a modern facility in Ongar, Essex, UK. Selcia have a GLP certified analytical laboratory and a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certificate for the preparation of C-14 labelled Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs).

Selcia Discovery provides integrated drug discovery services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries: these services include in vitro biology, screening including fragment screening, medicinal chemistry, and in vitro ADME/PK evaluation. Selcia’s scientists act as integrated project teams within the customer group striving to produce robust drug candidates against its partners’ biological targets. Selcia’s expertise in capillary electrophoresis (CE) offers clients the benefits of a versatile and proven technology applied to drug discovery screening on a wide variety of targets. Its proprietary fragment screen - CEfrag™ - is a powerful application of the technique at the outset of a drug discovery programme.

Selcia’s radiolabelling division produces C-14 radiolabelled compounds for a global customer base encompassing both the life sciences and chemical industries. Applications of the radiolabelled products prepared by Selcia include: preclinical and clinical drug metabolism studies; mass balance, microdosing, research and regulatory studies of cosmetic products; and environmental fate studies of agricultural and industrial chemicals.

Key Contacts

Selcia Media Contact
Oliver Woodman-Smith
Tel +44 (0)117 9739224
Email oliver@syndicut.com

Selcia Limited Contact
Dave Roberts
Tel +44 (0)1277 367000
Email contact@selcia.com