UCB looks to broaden skills of board

UCB Pharmaceuticals has announced a new candidate for acceptance into its board of directors and said it was looking to broaden the skills of those appointed.

The company said that by the time of the next general assembly, which is scheduled to take place on April 24th, the mandates of four of its directors will end.

It is therefore looking to widen the skills of the board and, in addition to the three candidates announced since December of last year, has now revealed Norman J Ornstein to be the fourth.

Mr Ornstein is a resident scholar at Washington DC’s American Enterprise Institute with a PhD in political science from the University of Michigan. He is also an honourary Doctor of laws at the University of Minnesota.

The other three candidates are Thomas Leysen – set to join the board in January 2009 – Jean-Pierre Kinet and Armand De Decker.

UCB issued a press release last week relating to its pharmaceutical product Cimzia (certolizumab pegol), announcing that the European Medicines Agency Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use had upheld the refusal of marketing authorisation for the drug.