Amrad unveils new CEO, chairman, business model

Dr Peter Smith, a British-born former biotech analyst and company founder, has been named as the new CEO of Melbourne firm Amrad (ASX:AML) at its annual general meeting today.

The company also used the AGM to unveil details of its new business model, which streamlines the company's two key R&D areas.

And board member Bob Moses has taken on the role of Amrad's chairman, with former chair, prominent Melbourne businessman Olaf O'Duill, remaining on the board of the company.

Smith was the co-founder and executive director of UK immunotherapy firm Onyvax, which was formed in 1997 and now has three products in the clinic, one of which -- an investigational treatment for prostate cancer -- was poised to enter clinical trials, Amrad said.

He also spent almost 10 years as a biotech and pharmaceutical analyst for merchant banks, and held a PhD in biochemistry from Cambridge, Amrad said. Smith, whose wife is Australian, said he had spent the last year in Australia, working as a consultant to several companies, including Amrad.

"The board is very impressed and believes that, after a three-month international search, we have found the right person for this crucial role," O'Duill said of Smith.

His annual base salary at Amrad is to be AUD$350,000, including superannuation -- considerably less than the salary paid to Dr Sandra Webb, who resigned as CEO in the middle of this year.

Business plans

Under Amrad's new business model, the company's R&D operations will be consolidated in two distinct research divisions, biological and antiviral.

The biological division will encompass Amrad's VEGF, GMCSF and SOCS clinical programs, as well as its deals surrounding enfilermin, with Serono, and IL-13, with Merck.

The company has begun looking at opportunities for either a joint venture or a spin-off of the antiviral division, in which Amrad would retain significant equity interest and participation at both management and R&D levels, and develop it into a proper company.

Moses told the AGM that Amrad would be seeking more alliances with big pharma.

"We have had enthusiastic, in-principal interest in the concept of early-stage research alliances from a couple of the largest members of big pharma," he said. But he said that such alliances would happen gradually.

Moses, a former vice-president of CSL, said Amrad's deal with Merck was comparable in scale to to the deal CSL made with the same company for its HPV vaccine project.

Amrad ended the 2002-03 financial year in the black for the first time in its history, although its bottom line had been considerably bolstered by the sale of its headquarters at Richmond, in central Melbourne.

In a statement, O'Duill said he was pleased to hand over to Smith and Moses a company in strong financial shape and a clear new business direction. He said Moses had played a key role in helping to make Amrad a renewed and more vigorous company over the previous 12 months.

Smith said he saw Amrad as having all the components in place to become a world-class company.

"Having spent much of my working life critically analysing pharmaceutical companies, I can honestly say I think Amrad is a great company with excellent potential and a team now ready to succeed,' he said.

Today's AGM also saw the resignation of John Mills, a nine-year veteran of the Amrad board.