24 May 2010 07:00
Ark Therapeutics Group plc
Appointment of CFO and Company Secretary
London, UK, 24 May 2010 - Ark Therapeutics Group plc (the "Company" or "Ark") announces that David Bowyer has been appointed as Chief Financial Officer and Dr Edward Bliss appointed Company Secretary. Martyn Williams is stepping down from the roles of Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary following his recent appointment as Chief Executive Officer.
David Bowyer joined Ark in 2004 and was promoted to Group Financial Controller in 2008. As Group Financial Controller David has been responsible for all aspects of financial reporting and control, tax planning, treasury and foreign exchange management. David is a Chartered Accountant who, prior to joining Ark, worked with Deloitte in Southern Africa for 4 years.
Dr Bliss joined Ark in 2005 and also holds the post of General Counsel. Edward joined Ark from the London office of the US international law firm, Covington & Burling LLP where he specialised in corporate, commercial and intellectual property law relating to the life sciences industry, and is a graduate in physiology with a doctorate in neuroscience.
Martyn Williams, CEO of Ark said:
"These promotions reflect David and Ed's significant contribution to the Company during the last six years. The Board is confident that these appointments will provide the Company with the financial and legal expertise necessary to execute our revised strategy and secure the future growth of the Company."
Enquiries
| Ark Therapeutics Group plc | Tel: +44 (0)20 7388 7722 |
| Martyn Williams, Chief Executive Officer |
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| Financial Dynamics | Tel: +44 (0)20 7831 3113 |
| Ben Atwell/Susan Quigley |
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Notes to Editors
Ark Therapeutics Group plc is a specialist healthcare group (the "Group") addressing high value areas of unmet medical need within vascular disease, wound care and cancer. These are large and growing markets, where opportunities exist for effective new products to generate significant revenues. With six marketed devices, Kerraboot®, Kerraped®, Flaminal®, Neuropad®, KerraMax® and Kerraglove® and three further lead pharmaceutical products in late stage clinical development: Cerepro®, Vitor™, and Trinam®, the Group is transitioning from an R&D company to a commercial, revenue generating business.
Ark's own products are sourced from related but largely non-dependent technologies within the Group and have been selected both to enable them to be taken through development within the Group's own means and to benefit from Orphan Drug Status and/or Fast Track Designation, where appropriate. This strategy has allowed the Group to retain greater value and greater control of clinical development timelines, and to mitigate the risks of dependency on any one particular programme or development partner. Ark has secured patents or has patent applications pending for all its lead products in principal pharmaceutical markets.
Ark has its origins in businesses established in the mid-1990s by Professor John Martin and Mr Stephen Barker of University College London and Professor Seppo Ylä-Herttuala of the AI Virtanen Institute at the University of Kuopio, Finland, all of whom play leading roles in the Company's research and development programmes.
Ark's shares were first listed on the London Stock Exchange in March 2004 (AKT.L).
This announcement includes "forward-looking statements" which include all statements other than statements of historical facts, including, without limitation, those regarding the Group's financial position, business strategy, plans and objectives of management for future operations (including development plans and objectives relating to the Group's products and services), and any statements preceded by, followed by or that include forward-looking terminology such as the words "targets", "believes", "estimates", "expects", "aims", "intends", "will", "can", "may", "anticipates", "would", "should", "could" or similar expressions or the negative thereof. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors beyond the Group's control that could cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Group to be materially different from future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on numerous assumptions regarding the Group's present and future business strategies and the environment in which the Group will operate in the future. Among the important factors that could cause the Group's actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include those relating to Ark's funding requirements, regulatory approvals, clinical trials, reliance on third parties, intellectual property, key personnel and other factors. These forward-looking statements speak only as at the date of this announcement. The Group expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to disseminate any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained in this announcement to reflect any change in the Group's expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statements are based. As a result of these factors, readers are cautioned not to rely on any forward-looking statement.