Lycera appoints Jeffrey Wilkins as chief medical officer

US oncology and autoimmune biopharma company Lycera has appointed Jeffrey Wilkins to the newly-created chief medical officer position.

He will lead the development pipeline of immune modulators, in which the most advanced candidate is an ATPase modulator being developed to treat inflammatory bowel disease, which is expected to enter clinical testing in the second quarter of 2015.

Paul Sekhri, chief executive of the company, said: "We are delighted to welcome Jeff at an important time for the company, as we plan to advance multiple product candidates into the clinic in the near term. With over 15 years of clinical research experience, Jeff possesses significant expertise and experience in developing and designing clinical trials in all stages of drug development through market launch. He will no doubt play a pivotal role in the progress and success of our product candidate programs."