Medicus Pharma (TSX-V:MDCX) has welcomed Erica Monaco, an experienced pharmaceutical industry professional with a strong track record of building companies, as its new chief operating officer (COO).
In conversation with Proactive, Monaco discussed how she was attracted to the company by the promise of its technology SkinJect: a microneedle patch that is being developed as a non-invasive alternative treatment for basal cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer.
She also spoke about how as Medicus’ new COO she plans to accelerate its efforts to advance its planned Phase 2 trial of SkinJect.
Proactive: Congratulations on the new role. We will get into what that’s going to entail but first, tell us about your background.
EM: It’s a pleasure to be here. I’m very excited. My background is I started in the finance industry working at Deloitte at the beginning of my career. I eventually made my way over to the pharmaceutical industry where I’ve spent the better part of the last decade predominantly on the non-melanoma skin cancer space and the dermatology sub-sector. I’ve been working in various leadership roles for companies that are launching combination products to treat in the dermatology office, specifically, non-melanoma skin cancer.
You’ve actually taken companies from where you’re the second employee all the way to their exit. You’ve got a lot of experience with that, yes?
I’ve had a lot of operational experience developing companies, which is something you take for granted when you work in an organization where everything is just there for you. Being the second employee in a company of two people, which we eventually grew to almost 100 employees at the peak, you become familiar with all the logistics, including purchasing the refrigerator or setting up the wireless network for your telephone. But going from that to figuring out how to import products and get commercial licensing and pharmaceutical registrations across the country, it was a wild ride and it’s been a really fun experience.
The regulatory part is super important for a company like Medicus but it can be tricky to navigate.
Absolutely. Especially in the stage that Medicus is at, the clinical development and design phase for our product, everything you do you put into the protocol and the design work with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will eventually trigger how this is going to be commercialized and marketed. So you have to think about the full end-to-end design and development when you’re at such specific stages of the organization’s growth.
What was it about Medicus Pharma (TSX-V:MDCX) that made you think it was a good opportunity for you to join the team?
I found out about the company when I saw it was in the process of submitting its Phase 2 clinical design. I read the study and became so quickly engrossed in what they were doing because they have a patch, a microneedle patch, which I think is such a valuable technology to have in the space. Today, the dermatology space is becoming so focused on aesthetics and cosmetic enhancements, so having this patch that will take the medication and transdermally dissolve it and have an improvement not only on physical appearance but also have a chemotherapeutic agent will treat a cancer – I just fell in love with the technology. I fell in love with the concept.
What will the job entail? What are some of the key things you want to look at?
At this stage, we’re really focused on growing the financial position of the organization to be able to accelerate the design in the Phase 2 study. Our focus in the short term is getting a little bit more cash on the books, then using that cash to propel the Phase 2 trial and eventually looking at additional products to add to the portfolio. My role is essentially all of that, seeing how I can help in a financial capacity and growing market positioning but also commercial strategic positioning in the dermatology space.
Quotes have been edited for clarity and style