Proven Pharmaceutical Sales Professional Brings Big Pharma Experience to Relief's U.S. Expansion Activities
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / ACCESSWIRE / March 21, 2022 / RELIEF THERAPEUTICS Holding SA (SIX: RLF, OTCQB: RLFTF, RLFTY) (" Relief "), a biopharmaceutical company seeking to provide patients therapeutic relief from serious diseases with high unmet need, today announced the appointment of Christopher Wick to the newly created position of Senior Director, Head of U.S. Sales. In this position, Mr. Wick will be responsible for building out and leading the company's U.S. sales team.
"The expansion of our pipeline and commercialized product portfolio, garnered as a result of our collaboration with Acer Therapeutics and the strategic acquisition, last year, of APR Applied Pharma Research SA, have allowed us to proactively plan for U.S. market penetration, initially, for APR's currently marketed flagship PKU GOLIKE(R) to treat phenylketonuria and the potential launch of ACER-001 to treat Urea Cycle Disorders, which has a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) target action date of June 5, 2022 ," stated Raghuram (Ram) Selvaraju, Chairman of Relief. "In this new position, Christopher will work closely with our Head of U.S. Commercial Operations, Anthony Kim, to build our capabilities in this all important market, in order to ensure our commercial success. His highly impressive background, punctuated by extraordinary sales success during more than 20 years at 'big pharma,' including with Alexion Pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis, makes Christopher a highly coveted addition to our team."
Prior to joining Relief, Mr. Wick was, since 2018, Regional Sales Director for Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he developed and led two high performing Excellence Award winning teams which achieved best in the nation sales for two product launches of Soliris(R), for the treatment of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NOSD) and generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG). Earlier, from 2015 to 2018, he served as the company's Southwest Regional Account Manager, where he cultivated a regional key opinion leader physician network while launching two of Alexion's enzyme replacement therapies for ultra-rare disease.
From 2007 until 2015, Mr. Wick served in positions of increasing responsibility at GlaxoSmithKline, most recently, from 2012 to 2015, as Southwest Health Systems Account Manager helping to ensure early adoption of the company's launch products as well as the entire pharmaceutical and biologic portfolio. In that role, he was responsible for Hospital System contracts, and collaborating with GlaxoSmithKline's largest and most complex accounts in the Integrated Delivery Networks (IDN) and Hospital Customer Segment.
Earlier, from 1999 until 2007, Mr. Wick was an Executive Account Manager at Novartis. While there, he contributed to both Specialty and Hospital Sales, served as a National Training Leader and Regional Trainer and consistently achieved a top 15% sales ranking.
Mr. Wick attended Purdue University and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from New Mexico State University.
ABOUT RELIEF
Relief focuses primarily on clinical-stage programs based on molecules with a history of clinical testing and use in human patients or a strong scientific rationale. Relief's drug candidate, RLF-100(TM) (aviptadil), a synthetic form of Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide (VIP), is in late-stage clinical testing in the U.S. for the treatment of respiratory deficiency due to COVID-19 through Relief's collaboration partner in the U.S., NeuroRx, Inc. Relief also has a Collaboration and License Agreement with Acer Therapeutics for the worldwide development and commercialization of ACER-001, a taste-masked and immediate release proprietary powder formulation of sodium phenylbutyrate (NaPB) for the treatment of Urea Cycle Disorders and Maple Syrup Urine Disease. Acer's new drug application for ACER-001 for use as a treatment of urea cycle disorders was recently accepted by the FDA for filing with a PDUFA decision date of June 5, 2022. Finally, Relief's acquisitions last summer of APR Applied Pharma Research SA and AdVita Lifescience GmbH brought to Relief a diverse pipeline of marketed and development-stage programs.
RELIEF THERAPEUTICS Holding SA is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the symbol RLF and quoted in the U.S. on OTCQB under the symbols RLFTF and RLFTY. For more information, visit www.relieftherapeutics.com .
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SOURCE: Relief Therapeutics Holdings AG