Ex-Ironwood CEO Mark Mallon pops up at George Medicines
George Medicines' new CEO Mark Mallon
UK start-up George Medicines has named Mark Mallon as its new chief executive, who will oversee the company as it tries to get its triple therapy for high blood pressure over the finish line.
Mallon had a 24-year career at AstraZeneca before taking the role of CEO at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, stepping down from the latter company shortly after it abandoned a late-stage drug candidate for refractory gastroesophageal reflux disease previously billed as a potential blockbuster.
That was followed by a year as CEO of NeoGenomics Labs, followed by consultancy and advisory roles, and he will now bring his experience to bear at London-based George as it waits for results from a phase 3 trial of single-pill triple GMRx2.
GMRx2 is a low-dose formulation of established blood pressure drugs telmisartan, amlodipine, and indapamide that is being tested in two international phase 3 trials. It heads a pipeline of medicines at George that are designed to improve therapy adherence in diseases that require patients to take multiple tablets per day.
The company hopes to show in its phase 3 programme that GMRx2 can boost adherence, increase efficacy, and reduce side effects, compared to antihypertensive medicines given separately, and topline safety and efficacy data from the phase 3 programme is expected shortly. Following after is GMRx4, a triple therapy for type 2 diabetes that is in phase 2 trials.
Mallon joins George 16 months after the company’s previous CEO Stefan König left to take the helm of Germany’s Merz Pharma. König was replaced on an interim basis by Staph Leavenworth Bakali, president and CEO of The George Institute for Global Health, from which George Medicines was spun out in 2016.
“I am honoured to join George Medicines and strongly believe in its mission to extend and improve the lives of millions of people suffering from the world’s leading causes of death and disability, such as hypertension, diabetes, and other common cardiometabolic disorders,” he said.
He added that GMRx2 “provides a significant, near-term opportunity to change the treatment paradigm for people living with uncontrolled hypertension – a condition that has seen limited innovation in recent decades and continues to present a significant burden globally.”
Only around one in five patients treated for hypertension worldwide can manage it effectively with current medicines, and it is well-established that uncontrolled blood pressure raises the risk of serious complications like strokes and early death.
George has been looking for commercial partners to help roll out the triple therapy around the world.
