Verona Pharma’s departing CEO hails most productive year ever

Verona Pharma's outgoing chief executive officer (CEO) Professor Michael Walker has hailed the 2011 business year as its most productive ever.

Commenting during the company's recent annual general meeting, Professor Walker highlighted the encouraging progress made in the clinical development of its two drug programmes, RPL554 and VRP700.

The firm is commencing new trials to evaluate the efficacy of RPL554 as a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease treatment, while further studies are being considered for VRP700, a promising therapy for chronic severe cough.

Following the meeting, Professor Walker stepped down from his role as CEO, with Dr Jan-Anders Karlsson taking up the position.

"I believe Dr Karlsson's experience will be invaluable to the company as it moves its clinical programmes forward and continues to grow and expand," Professor Walker said.

Verona Pharma is also working on new synthetic and analytical chemical techniques to develop novel anti-inflammatory polysaccharides for the treatment of a wide range of respiratory and inflammatory diseases.