INTERVIEW: Verona Pharma's CEO Jan-Anders Karlsson on the company's hope for two 'first-in-class' compounds for respiratory diseases

22 July 2013

With a clear passion for helping patients and a self-confessed need to know everything that is happening “on the shopfloor,” Jan-Anders Karlsson is arguably a pharma chief executive like no other, writes TPL’s Sophie Flowers after an interview with the man himself.

As CEO of Verona Pharma (LSE: VRP), a small UK-based biotechnology company dedicated to discovering new drugs to treat chronic respiratory diseases, his unwavering focus on developing long-term “life-changing” relief for patients might be making him unpopular with shareholders looking to make a quick buck, but his experience speaks for itself.

Before taking over as CEO of Verona Pharma in June last year Dr Karlsson had already gained more than 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, with successes in the drug discovery and development areas in both large pharmaceutical and biotech companies, where he built entrepreneurial drug discovery and development cultures.

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