Heptares appoints former GSK research head Tim Tasker as CMO

UK-based drug company Heptares Therapeutics has appointed Tim Tasker as chief medical officer 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 more than 20 years at UK pharma major GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) and led all of its Phase I 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 II 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.

Dr 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.”