18 November 2013
Clarity Pharmaceuticals (Clarity), a Sydney-based companion diagnostic and personalised medicine company, is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Alan Taylor as its new Executive Chairman to the Board.
Dr Taylor has a background in both investment banking and medical science, and brings a wealth of experience to the Clarity Board. Alan has approximately ten years investment banking experience, and was until very recently an Executive Director and shareholder of Inteq Limited, a boutique Australian investment bank, where he remains on the Board of Directors. At Inteq, Alan was involved in some of Australia’s largest life sciences listings on the Australian Securities Exchange.
Dr Taylor stated: “I’m very excited to be joining Clarity at this very important stage of its development. My motivation in leaving direct investment banking was to focus on opportunities to commercialise Australian science, and with a goal of building the next Australian success story in life sciences.”
“Clarity has the potential to be this success story, with a diversified business model, broad client base from big pharma to small life sciences companies, and patented technology and experience that allows the Company to deliver a high value service to its clients, as well as develop its own pharmaceutical assets within the Company.
“I look forward to working closely with the Company’s Board, management and world renowned scientific advisers in order to maximise the success of this Company.”
Clarity is a private company providing patented companion diagnostic services to the pharmaceutical industry and a developer of new drug assets and in-house companion diagnostics. Clarity provides pre-clinical to clinical services utilising positron emission tomography (PET) and determines functionality and efficacy of drugs over a broad range of time frames based on the drug pharmacokinetics. These services can increase a drug’s efficacy through better selection of patient populations and better dosing regimens, making drugs safer, more effective and more economical to use. The Company’s main clients are small to very large antibody and peptide based pharmaceutical developers.
Clarity’s Managing Director, Dr Matt Harris, added: “It is very rare to find someone with both a finance and science background, and Alan brings significant experience in strategy, capital raisings and mergers and acquisitions to the Clarity Board, areas that will help Clarity build on the strong momentum within the Company.”
“Clarity is in a significant growth phase for an early stage company, and given the continued growth of both the companion diagnostics and personalised medicine markets, and our role within those markets, we are seeing far greater opportunities. With Alan’s executive role we will now be better positioned to act upon these exciting opportunities.”
Alan has completed an undergraduate degree in Applied Science at the University of Sydney, where he finished first in his year and won the prestigious University Medal. He completed his Ph.D. in Medicine in the Cell Signalling lab at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. Alan has also completed a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance from FINSIA.
