Botanix lines up exec chair appointment

Botanix Pharmaceuticals has appointed Vince Ippolito as its president in the US, and subject to shareholder approval, he will also assume the role of executive chairman for the company.

In that capacity, he would take over leadership from executive director Matt Callahan, who founded the company in Perth but has been based in the US for several years.

Perth-based Graham Griffiths was non-executive chairman, but that role has been vacant since he passed away in February.

In a statement, Botanix said Mr Ippolito will assume responsibility for all of the company’s commercial operations worldwide as the company prepares for data read-outs from its psoriasis mechanism of action study this quarter.

The company said Mr Ippolito is a US-based dermatology industry leader with over 30 years’ experience who played a leading role in the recent sale of dermatology company Anacor to Pfizer for US$5.2 billion.

He most recently served as the president and chief operation officer of Dermavant Sciences, and also played a role in the sale of Medicis to Valeant for US$2.6bn in 2012.

He also sits on the board of Suneva Medical, a privately held regenerative aesthetics company.  

Mr Callahan welcomed Mr Ippolito to the company on behalf of the board.

“Vince has an enviable track record of developing and launching more than 20 dermatology products in the US and brings a wealth of knowledge and industry expertise to the company,” he said.

Subject to shareholder approval of a proposed remuneration package for Mr Ippolito, he will join the board as executive chairman.

As part of the remuneration package to be approved, it is intended that Mr Ippolito will be issued 12 million options under Botanix’s plan.

These options will have an exercise price the higher of the closing share price on the previous day’s trading before the day of issue and the seven-day volume-weighted average price of shares trading before the day of issue.

Botanix has offices in Perth, Sydney and the US city of Philadelphia.