Mr Kay will join Algeta from Renovo, where he was executive director of commercial operations. He brings more than 25 years of commercial experience in the pharmaceutical sector.
At Algeta, Mr Kay will be responsible for enhancing the company’s commercial capabilities and initially will be seeking commercial development partners for Algeta’s lead product candidate, Alpharadin, which entered an international Phase III clinical trial in 2008 as a novel treatment for patients with skeletal metastases from hormone refractory prostate cancer. He will be based in the UK.
The board of directors has also announced that Thomas Ramdahl, who has served as CEO of the company since 2001, will take up the position of executive vice president and chief technology officer. Working closely with the CEO, Dr Ramdahl will have broad responsibility for technology issues, both for late-stage products and the early discovery pipeline.
Stein Annexstad, chairman of Algeta, said: “Algeta’s lead product Alpharadin continues to make excellent progress through clinical trials, giving us great confidence of its potential as a new treatment for advanced prostate cancer. As the company moves into a more commercial phase of its development, we are very pleased to have been able to attract Andrew to strengthen the executive management team. We believe that his international commercial expertise and networks complement the existing skills in the company and will be of significant value to Algeta in bringing Alpharadin to market.”