RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Liquidia Technologies, Inc. (“Liquidia”), a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company focused on improving the performance of medicine by precisely engineering drug particles, today announced the appointment of Jeri Thomas as Senior Vice President, Commercial. Ms. Thomas will have responsibility for developing and leading Liquidia’s commercial plans, with initial focus on LIQ861, an inhaled dry powder formulation of treprostinil currently being evaluated in a pivotal Phase 3 safety trial (INSPIRE) for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).
“Jeri brings an extensive background in building and leading commercial organizations,” stated Neal Fowler, Chief Executive Officer of Liquidia. “As we look to advance LIQ861 for the treatment of PAH, having her expertise will be critical to the development and leadership of our commercialization strategy. She is a leader within the industry and we are excited to have her onboard.”
Most recently, Ms. Thomas was Senior Vice President, Strategic Group Planning at Harrison and Star, a global healthcare marketing agency. Prior to that, she served as Senior Vice President of the Surgical & Perioperative Care Business Unit at The Medicines Company where she led the global commercialization of IONSYS®, the first drug-device combination product for acute postoperative pain. Prior to The Medicines Company, Ms. Thomas was at Janssen Pharmaceuticals (a Johnson & Johnson company) where she held various senior leadership positions including Vice President, Market Strategy & Access for Latin America, Vice President, New Business and New Product Planning, and Director of Marketing, Analgesic Franchise. She has also held management positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb and Hoffman-La Roche Pharmaceuticals. Ms. Thomas obtained her Master of Business Administration in a dual program from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University and ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. She received a Bachelor of Science in Health Planning and Administration from Penn State University.
“I am impressed and excited with the team’s commitment to improving the quality of life for those living with PAH,” commented Ms. Thomas. “The innovative design of LIQ861 to enable deep-lung delivery and to safely deliver higher doses into the lungs has the potential to overcome the limitations of current nebulized therapies. Liquidia is positioned for the next stage of growth with LIQ861 in late-stage development and I look forward to playing a role in its success.”
ABOUT LIQUIDIA TECHNOLOGIES
Liquidia Technologies, Inc. (“Liquidia”) is a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company that is focused on improving the performance of medicines by precisely engineering drug particles. Liquidia’s proprietary PRINT® technology is designed to improve the safety, efficacy or route of administration of a wide range of therapies by engineering uniform drug particles in a wide variety of compositions, sizes and shapes. Currently, Liquidia is developing two of its own product candidates using PRINT® particles: LIQ861 for the treatment of PAH and LIQ865 for the treatment of local post-operative pain. Liquidia’s lead product candidate, LIQ861, currently being evaluated in a Phase 3 clinical trial (INSPIRE), is designed to improve the therapeutic profile of treprostinil by enhancing deep-lung delivery and achieving higher dose levels than current inhaled therapies by using a convenient, disposable dry powder inhaler. LIQ865, for which Liquidia has recently completed a U.S. Phase 1b clinical trial, is designed to deliver sustained-release particles of bupivacaine, a non-opioid anesthetic, to treat local post-operative pain. In addition to developing our own product candidates, Liquidia collaborates with leading pharmaceutical companies to apply its PRINT® technology across existing drugs, new chemical entities and biologics. For more information, please visit www.liquidia.com.
