LEXINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Concert Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: CNCE) announced today the appointment of Wendell Wierenga, Ph.D. to its board of directors. Dr. Wierenga is a seasoned executive with broad experience across all aspects of research, drug discovery and drug development including clinical research, regulatory affairs, manufacturing, safety, and medical affairs. Over the course of his career, he has been involved in over 70 INDs, 15 NDAs and 16 marketed products, including Lipitor®, Neurontin®, and Uceris®.
“We are pleased to welcome Wendell to our Board of Directors,” said Roger Tung, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Concert Pharmaceuticals. “We have had the pleasure and benefit of working with Wendell in his previous role on Concert’s product advisory board. Given the breadth of his R&D experience across numerous therapeutic areas and knowledge of Concert’s technology, we believe Wendell will be an extremely valuable addition to our Board. We look forward to continuing to work with him in his new role as we broaden and advance our product pipeline.”
Most recently, Dr. Wierenga served as Executive Vice President of Research and Development of Santarus, Inc., a specialty biopharmaceutical company that was acquired by Salix Pharmaceuticals in January 2014. Before joining Santarus, he held the position of Executive Vice President, Research and Development at both Ambit Biosciences and Neurocrine Biosciences. Prior to joining Neurocrine, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Syrrx, Inc., which was acquired by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company. He also served as Senior Vice President of Worldwide Pharmaceutical Sciences, Technologies and Development at Parke-Davis/Warner Lambert (now Pfizer) and spent 16 years leading cancer and infectious disease research and drug discovery at Upjohn Pharmaceuticals.
Dr. Wierenga earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Stanford University and completed an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship at Stanford. He earned his B.A. from Hope College in Holland, Michigan. Dr. Wierenga is a member of the boards of directors of Apricus Biosciences, Inc., Cytokinetics, Inc., Ocera Therapeutics, Inc. and Xenoport, Inc. He also serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Ferring Pharmaceuticals and aTyr Pharma, Inc.
About Concert
Concert Pharmaceuticals is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on applying its DCE Platform® (deuterated chemical entity platform) to create novel small molecule drugs. This approach starts with approved drugs, advanced clinical candidates or previously studied compounds that have the potential to be improved with deuterium substitution to enhance clinical safety, tolerability and efficacy. The company is developing a broad pipeline targeting CNS disorders, renal disease, inflammation and cancer.
Concert Pharmaceuticals Inc., the CoNCERT Pharmaceuticals Inc. logo and DCE Platform are registered trademarks of Concert Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
