NEW YORK and LONDON, Jan. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sumitovant Biopharma Ltd., the majority shareholder of Myovant Sciences (NYSE: MYOV), announced today that Myovant Sciences, a healthcare company focused on redefining care for women and for men and one of the five healthcare companies in the Sumitovant family of companies, appointed Mr. David Marek as chief executive officer of Myovant Sciences, Inc. Mr. Marek will also serve as principal executive officer of Myovant Sciences Ltd. and as a member of its board of directors. Mr. Marek succeeds Lynn Seely, M.D.
David Marek is a veteran biopharmaceutical executive with over 30 years of experience in the industry. He brings to Myovant the commercial expertise of a seasoned pharmaceutical executive, the strategic prowess from leading one of the world’s most successful healthcare advertising agencies, as well as the consumer and digital marketing know-how from one of the most popular health information portals, WebMD. David joins Myovant from Axsome Therapeutics where he was chief commercial officer responsible for building out commercial capabilities in preparation for multiple expected launches.
Prior to Axsome, David served as general manager of Amgen’s Neuroscience Business Unit where, amongst other responsibilities, he oversaw the successful launch of AIMOVIG®, the first-of-its-kind migraine preventive therapy that became and remains the top drug in its class. In that role, David also co-led the AIMOVIG® commercialization partnership in the U.S. with Novartis. David joined Amgen as vice president of marketing for Amgen’s $9 billion Inflammation and Nephrology Business Unit that represented approximately 40% of Amgen’s total company revenue at that time. In this role, he was charged with transforming and modernizing the commercial capabilities as he oversaw the following therapeutic areas: rheumatology, dermatology, nephrology, and eventually, neuroscience.
Prior to Amgen, David was executive vice president, consumer services at WebMD where he led an organization of over 300 employees across marketing, sales, medical, editorial, programming, analytics, government relations, and other key areas. Prior to WebMD, David served as managing director at Saatchi and Saatchi Healthcare Advertising where his organization led the development and implementation of advertising strategies for some of the industry’s most important multi-billion-dollar brands, including NEXIUM®, ENBREL®, CRESTOR®, ELOXITIN®, SEROQUEL®, and AMBIEN® across global markets from launch to loss-of-exclusivity.
“We welcome David to this important role at Myovant. We are confident that he will provide the leadership to continue to expand Myovant’s clinical development strengths while guiding the company in its commercial endeavors,” said Myrtle Potter, chief executive officer of Sumitovant Biopharma and chairman of the board of Myovant Sciences. As the first member of the Sumitovant family of health care companies to reach commercialization, Myovant will set the precedent for the pace and approach of our pipeline development as well as our goal of becoming a high-performing commercial organization.”
“I am pleased to bring my years of experience to Myovant at this pivotal time as the company transitions to being a commercial-stage enterprise. Myovant has already earned a well-deserved reputation for developing therapies with the potential to redefine care for women and for men. I look forward to working with the experienced and talented Myovant team to further strengthen the company’s competitive position while driving growth and profitability,” said David Marek, chief executive officer of Myovant Sciences, Inc. “I am also committed to assuring Myovant’s drug development engine continues to grow the company as we pursue purpose-driven science, empowering medicines, and transformative advocacy.”
We sincerely thank Dr. Seely for her leadership in building Myovant. Dr. Seely is a true physician-scientist and business leader who understands and is deeply committed to the bench to bedside care of patients,” said Potter. “Under her leadership, in less than 5 years, Myovant built a high-performing clinical development engine that has conducted five successful global phase 3 trials, resulting in multiple NDA and other regulatory filings, with ORGOVYX™ earning priority review designation and approval from the FDA. Dr. Seely also led the effort that resulted in Myovant’s important strategic partnership with Pfizer. The Myovant employee team is excellent, passionate, and excited about the company’s potential to make a difference for patients and healthcare providers. Dr. Seely leaves a stellar foundation of success that will be built upon by David Marek.”
About Myovant Sciences
Myovant Sciences aspires to redefine care for women and for men through purpose-driven science, empowering medicines, and transformative advocacy. Our lead product candidate, relugolix, is a once-daily, oral GnRH receptor antagonist. Relugolix (120 mg) is FDA-approved as ORGOVYX™ for adult patients with advanced prostate cancer. Relugolix combination tablet (relugolix 40 mg, estradiol 1.0 mg, and norethindrone acetate 0.5 mg) is under regulatory review in Europe and the U.S. for women with uterine fibroids and is under development for women with endometriosis. We are also developing MVT-602, an oligopeptide kisspeptin-1 receptor agonist, which has completed a Phase 2a study for female infertility as part of assisted reproduction. Sumitovant Biopharma, Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co., Ltd., is our majority shareholder. For more information, please visit our website at www.myovant.com. Follow @Myovant on Twitter and LinkedIn.
About Sumitovant Biopharma Ltd.
Sumitovant is a global biopharmaceutical company with offices in New York City and London. Sumitovant is the majority shareholder of Myovant and Urovant, and wholly owns Enzyvant, Spirovant and Altavant. Sumitovant's promising pipeline is comprised of early-through late-stage investigational medicines across a range of disease areas targeting high unmet needs. Sumitovant is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma. For further information about Sumitovant, please visit https://www.sumitovant.com.
About Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co., Ltd.
Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma is among the top-ten listed pharmaceutical companies in Japan, operating globally in major pharmaceutical markets, including the U.S., Japan, China, and the European Union. Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma is based on the merger in 2005 between Dainippon Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., and Sumitomo Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. Today, Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma has more than 6,000 employees worldwide. Additional information about Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma is available through its corporate website at https://www.ds-pharma.com.
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