Mountain Valley MD Holdings Inc (CSE:MVMD, OTCQB:MVMDF). has announced the appointment of Dr Azhar Rana as the company’s chief medical officer (CMO).
The company noted that Dr Rana brings to it nearly two decades of life sciences experience in clinical development, pre and post-launch medical affairs, regulatory and commercial strategy, including 10 years of pharmaceutical leadership at Bristol Myers-Squibb, Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) and AstraZeneca.
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During his pharmaceutical career, Dr Rana has gained experience in the development, launch, and life cycle management of novel therapeutics, leading and collaborating with teams in clinical operations and development, medical affairs, regulatory affairs, quality, and pharmacovigilance.
He established the North American organization for integrated medhealth communications (imc Group), a globally recognized medical communications agency supporting pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies. As president & managing director, Dr Rana led an extensive cross-functional medical marketing team, working with global companies and healthcare professionals at different stages of drug and device development. He brings a wealth of experience in a number of disease areas, including virology, oncology, inflammation and metabolic disease.
Dr Rana completed his medical degree at the Aga Khan University and subsequently trained in internal medicine in the United Kingdom.
“I am extremely proud to welcome Dr Rana to our leadership team at Mountain Valley MD and look forward to his immediate contributions towards the advancement of our pipeline of novel health and wellness applications,” said Dennis Hancock, president and CEO of Mountain Valley MD in a statement. “Dr Rana’s extensive pharmaceutical and biotech experience comes at a critical time for MVMD as we continue to advance our science and solidify key technology licensing agreements.”
"I am excited to be joining MVMD and look forward to working with the outstanding leadership team here to help advance the numerous technology applications into commercialization in this next phase of planned growth," added Dr Rana. "The pursuit of the Company’s broad vision of more life across the global landscape is very compelling to me personally at this stage of my career and I am honored to have my legacy work supporting broad husbandry and human health initiatives."
The company also said it has granted 1,000,000 options to Dr Rana at an exercise price of $0.365 per share. The options are exercisable for a period of five years, 20% vesting on the date of grant, 30% on the 6-month anniversary following the date of grant and the remaining 50% on the 12-month anniversary following the date of grant.
Mountain Valley MD is building a world-class biotech and life sciences company organization centered around the implementation of its patented Quicksome oral drug formulation and delivery technologies and its Quicksol. solubilization technology for macrocyclic lactones, to innovate industry-leading products that are sought out globally.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com