Circassia, a UK biopharmaceutical firm based on the Oxford Science Park, has hired Brett Haumann as chief medical officer and Stewart Sharpe to the newly-created position of vp, commercial operations.
Haumann joins the allergy specialist from GlaxoSmithKline where he was vp and medicines development leader responsible for the late-stage development of once daily inhaled medicines for the treatment of asthma and COPD.
Sharpe brings 25 years of commercial and marketing experience to the firm. Most recently he was head of commercial business development at Astellas Pharma's subsidiary OSI/Prosidion. Previously, he held senior leadership roles at Takeda, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Roche and Glaxo Wellcome.
Circassia’s chief executive Steve Harris said Haumann’s extensive regulatory, medical and development experience would be invaluable as the firm moves its leading allergy treatment, based on its proprietary ToleroMune technology, into the final phase of clinical testing.
ToleroMune uses small sections of allergens (epitopes) to generate regulatory T cells that suppress allergic responses and create immune tolerance in patients. The company has successfully completed a number of phase II studies with its cat, house dust mite, ragweed and grass allergy therapies.
Circassia was founded in 2006 by a team of biotechnology scientists and entrepreneurs, and is chaired by the former chairman of GlaxoSmithKline, Sir Richard Sykes. The company has a joint venture with McMaster University (Adiga Life Sciences Inc) based in Hamilton, Canada.
Scientists at Imperial College, London were the original developers of ToleroMune technology.
