Cellmid Ltd (ASX:CDY) has appointed Bart Wuurman as chief executive officer of its wholly owned subsidiary Lyramid, effective June 1, 2019.

Wuurman is an accomplished biotech CEO with over 30 years’ experience in innovative drug development, biotech financing, business development and licensing.

He has extensive experience in working with R&D based companies in pharmaceutical product development in several therapeutic areas, including cancer, fibrosis and cardiovascular diseases.

Separating consumer health and biotech businesses

The appointment of Wuurman is in line with Cellmid’s strategy to unlock shareholder value by separating the consumer health and the biotech business.

His mandate is to accelerate partnering discussions and explore opportunities to fully exploit the midkine assets.

Wuurman has previously executed successful biotech deals including Antisoma in the UK via a successful IPO and Lanthio Pharma in the Netherland via a trade sale.

At AM-Pharma, as CEO, he was instrumental in securing a €29 million funding round and a $600 million option deal with Pfizer.

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Cellmid CEO Maria Halasz said: “We welcome Bart to the Cellmid leadership team and are very excited to work with him on the midkine portfolio.

“He has a track record of leading successful commercial deals in biotech and we see many opportunities for value creation in taking our midkine assets to the next level of clinical development.”