Redx appoints senior AstraZeneca executive as new chief executive
Cancer drug developer Redx has appointed Lisa Anson as its chief executive, the Alderley Park-based business announced today.
She will take up her place on the board on June 1. At that time Iain Ross, currently executive chairman, will revert to being non-executive chairman.
Ms Anson, aged 49, has been president of pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca UK since 2012 and brings significant leadership experience to the role.
Over a 20 year career with AstraZeneca she has held a variety of senior management roles at AstraZeneca in both the US and the UK, including global vice president oncology and vice president of emerging brands, working closely with the research and development teams.
Ms Anson holds a MBA (awarded with distinction) from INSEAD, France and a first class honours degree in natural sciences from Cambridge University.
After graduating she joined KPMG in London as a management consultant and then moved to California where she worked for Salick Health Care, now Aptium, a cancer disease management company, prior to joining Zeneca Pharmaceuticals (USA) in 1998 as a business development manager.
She is the current president of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry.
Iain Ross said: “On behalf of the board and the team, I welcome Lisa to Redx.
“Following the events of 2017 Lisa has been tasked by the board to lead the re-launch of the company and to take the steps necessary to build a substantial biotech company built upon an innovative science base, selectively acquiring additional assets, if appropriate.
“Lisa is a consummate business professional, who brings a wealth of relevant experience from the international pharmaceutical and biotech sector.
“I am confident that, as CEO, she is the right person to grow this company into a very exciting and meaningful entity that has the potential to create both important new medicines for patients and generate significant value for shareholders.”
He added: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Redx team for the tremendous effort they have made over the last six months whilst the business has been in transition. Lisa’s appointment marks a new beginning.”
Ms Anson said: “I am incredibly excited by the opportunity to lead Redx on the next stage of its journey to be a leading UK Biotech company.
“The team have impressed me and the company now has a clear focus on some very exciting areas of science in both fibrosis and cancer where there are a number of ongoing programmes.
“I look forward to working with the team and the board to build and develop Redx to its full potential.”
Admimistrators were called in to Redx by Liverpool City Council last year following an ongoing dispute over a £2m loan that matured at the end of March.
Liverpool Council’s fall out with the company came after it relocated from Liverpool to Alderley Park in Cheshire towards the end of the previous year.
The council claimed the company had shown “no willingness to make any repayment of any size” on a £2m investment loan made in 2012 to support its business expansion plans in the city.
Redx, meanwhile, said it had offered to make an immediate payment of £1m and the remaining £1m within seven days and that it cound not fathom the council’s sudden, aggressive change in stance.
In July last year administrators agreed to sell one of the firm’s development programmes to a US-based biotechnology company for £30.5m.
They said the sale will allow for all creditors to be paid and provide enough working capital to return the business to solvency.
