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e-Therapeutics plc('e-Therapeutics' or the 'Company')

Appointment of Non-Executive Director

29 October 2015: e-Therapeutics plc (AIM: ETX), the drug discovery and development company, announces the appointment of Professor Trevor Mervyn Jones CBE, aged 73, to the Board of Directors as a Non-Executive Director.

Professor Jones has today joined the Company. Dr Rajesh Chopra, Non-Executive Director, has also resigned to return to a full-time academic research career.

Professor Jones has over 40 years' distinguished experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry as well as in academia. He is currently Chairman of the international CRO, Simbec-Orion Group Limited and Welsh investment company, Arthurian Life Sciences Limited. He is also Visiting Professor at King's College, London and holds honorary degrees and Gold Medals from seven universities.

Previously, he has held significant roles in industry including Director of Allergan Inc from 2005 to 2015 and R&D Director of The Wellcome Foundation from 1987-1994, where he was responsible for the development of AZT, Zovirax, Lamictal, Malarone and other medicines.

He has also held a number of advisory and regulatory roles including Director General of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) from 1994 to 2004, board member of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industry Associations (EFPIA) and the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations (IFPMA). For 12 years, Professor Jones was a member of the UK Government regulatory agency, The Medicines Commission. He was a member of the UK Government Pharmaceutical Industry Ministerial Strategy Working Group on Pharmaceuticals and adviser to the Cabinet Office on the Human Genome Project in2001. He has also been a member of the Prime Minister's Task Force on the Competitiveness of the Pharmaceutical Industry (PICTF) and Chair of the Government Advisory Group on Genetics Research.

Professor Jones is a founder member of the Hever Group, a forum of the heads of research and development of large pharmaceutical companies that was formed to discuss issues facing the industry and solutions for addressing common challenges.

Commenting on the appointment, Professor Malcolm Young, CEO of e-Therapeutics, said: "Professor Jones' exceptional research and development experience and illustrious record will be an immensely valuable addition to the team as we ramp up towards realising the commercial potential of our discovery and development assets. I would also like to thank Raj Chopra on behalf of e-Therapeutics for his long and considerable contributions to the Company and we all wish him well in the next stage of his career.

"The appointment of Professor Jones further supports our new primary focus on commercialising our most promising compounds and programmes."

Current directorships:

Arthurian Life Sciences Limited

Simbec-Orion Group Limited

The UK Stem Cell Foundation

Directorships held in the last five years:

Allergan Inc

Nextpharma Technologies Holding Limited

Reneuron (UK) Limited

Reneuron Group plc

Reneuron Holdings Limited

Reneuron Limited

Sciclone Pharmaceuticals Inc

Sigma Tau Finanziaria SpA

Sigma-Tau Industrie Farmaceutiche Riunite SpA

Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals Inc

Sigma Topco Limited

Simbec Research Limited

Synexus Clinical Research Topco Limited

Synexus Clinical Research Midco No 2 Limited

Synexus Clinical Research Midco No 4 Limited

Tecnogen SpA

The British Neurological Research Trust

Verona Pharma plc

Trevor Jones holds no ordinary shares in the Company.

In relation to the appointment of Professor Jones to the Board of Directors, e-Therapeutics confirms that there is nothing further to disclose in relation to his appointment under AIM Rule 17 or Schedule Two, paragraph (g) of the AIM Rules for Companies except as disclosed in this announcement.

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About e-Therapeutics plc

e-Therapeutics (AIM: ETX) is a drug discovery and development company with a proprietary discovery platform based on advances in network pharmacology and chemical biology.

The Company is applying its platform to the discovery of new drug candidates. The therapeutic focus of the Company's discovery activity is in immuno-oncology and addressing drug resistance in targeted cancer therapies. The platform is yielding multiple, highly potent, selective and diverse molecules at much higher yields than is reported for conventional drug discovery. 

e-Therapeutics is also advancing its most promising programmes through clinical trials. There is a phase IIb clinical stage drug candidate for major depressive disorder, ETS6103; and a phase Ib clinical stage candidate in hepatocellular and pancreatic cancer, ETS2101. The Company also has a variety of preclinical stage assets, including ETX1153c, a functionally resistance-less antibiotic; ETS2300, telomerase inhibition in anti-cancer; ETS3100, small molecule anti-TNFα; ETS2400 and Hedgehog pathway inhibition.

The Company is fully funded to advance its existing development programmes in cancer and depression and a further programme from its discovery platform. It is based at sites in Oxford and Newcastle, UK. For more information about the Company, please visit www.etherapeutics.co.uk.

Professor Trevor Jones CBE - additional biographical informationIn 2005 he was the winner of the SCRIP Life Time Achievement award for his contribution to the pharmaceutical sciences and industry.

Professor Jones was honoured by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by the award of CBE in the 2003 New Year's Honours List.