Peptech appoints new CEO

Sydney's Peptech (ASX:PTD) has appointed Dr John Chiplin as its new chief executive officer, effective January 2006.

Chiplin will take over from current executive chairman Mel Bridges, who will continue with Peptech as non-executive chairman following his two-year contract in the executive role.

"It was always my intention from the moment I signed that contract to go back to being an independent chairman," said Bridges. "The only reason I originally took the executive chair role was to get the company through the Centocor and Abbott disputes and get the company settled and on a good footing. Which is the case now."

Peptech settled its patent dispute with Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Centocor earlier this year and now receives royalties for Centocor's anti-TNF drug Remicade. Peptech also reached a settlement with Abbott, with the European pharma agreeing to pay disputed royalties on Peptech's anti-TNF-1-based anti-inflammatory technology.

Bridges said that Chiplin has international biotech experience, particularly in the United Kingdom and the USA, in both private and publicly listed companies.

"His background is immaculate for Peptech, in that he's a pharmacist and he's got a PhD in biochemistry," said Bridges.

Welsh born and currently based in the UK, Chiplin studied at the University of Nottingham.

From 1984 to 1985 Chiplin worked as a research group leader for GlaxoSmithKline in the UK before moving to California where he held positions as sales director of MDL Information Systems; vice president, sales and business development of Biosym Technologies; president and CEO of Superscape; and CEO of Geneformatics.

In 2003 he returned to the UK as ITI Life Sciences' CEO and managing director of Newstar Ventures, which is based in London and New York.

"He's very progressive, dynamic, got a lot of energy, and both academic and commercial qualifications," said Bridges.

Bridges said that the decision to find a new CEO was made in the middle of 2005 with the intention of finding someone by the first quarter of 2006.

"The process actually only took 3 months," said Bridges. "It went the way you'd hope an executive search process would go, it all went just perfectly."

Bridges said that there will be no dramatic changes to the company in the near future. When Chiplin starts in January 2006, the company will review its strategy.

"The focus going forward will still be heavily focused on building a pipeline in cancer and inflammation, to grow that R&D pipeline further to move forward and look to do some commercial deals through 2006-2007," said Bridges.

Chiplin will receive a base total remuneration package of $400,000 per annum and a short term incentive of up to $200,000 per annum based on performance hurdles agreed with the Peptech board.