Essa Pharma appoints Parkinson to board

2015-06-24 16:27 ET - News Release

Mr. Bob Rieder reports
ESSA PHARMA INC. ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF NEW DIRECTOR
Essa Pharma Inc. has appointed Dr. David Parkinson to its board of directors. Dr. Parkinson's appointment as an independent director is effective immediately.
"We are delighted to have David join our board," stated Richard Glickman, Chairman of the ESSA board of directors. "With his extensive background in dealing with clinical and regulatory matters as well as his experience in the pharmaceutical industry, David will bring an invaluable perspective to our strategic decisions."

David R. Parkinson is a Venture Partner at New Enterprise Associates ("NEA"). From 2007 until 2012, Dr. Parkinson served as President and CEO of Nodality, a South San Francisco-based biotechnology company focused on the biological characterization of signaling pathways in patients with malignancy to enable more effective therapeutics development and clinical decision-making. Until October 2007, Dr. Parkinson was Senior Vice President, Oncology Research and Development, at Biogen Idec. At Biogen Idec he oversaw all oncology discovery research efforts and the development of the oncology pipeline. Previously he had served as Vice President, Oncology Development, at Amgen and Vice President, Global Clinical Oncology Development, at Novartis. During his tenures at Amgen and Novartis, Dr. Parkinson was responsible for clinical development activities leading to a series of successful global drug registrations for important cancer therapeutics, including Gleevec, Femara, Zometa, Kepivance, and Vectibix.

Prior to joining industry, Dr. Parkinson worked at the National Cancer Institute from 1990 to 1997, serving as Chief of the Investigational Drug Branch, then as Acting Associate Director of the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program. Dr. Parkinson is a past Chairman of the Food & Drug Administration ("FDA") Biologics Advisory Committee and is a recipient of the FDA's Cody Medal. He has served on the National Cancer Policy Forum of the Institute of Medicine and is a past co-chair of the Cancer Steering Committee of the NIH Foundation Biomarkers Consortium. He has also served as a member of the FDA's Science Board, as an elected Director on the Board of Directors of the American Association of Cancer Research, and as a Director on the Board of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. He currently serves as a Board Director for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation and as the Chairperson of the American Association of Cancer Research ("AACR") Finance and Audit Committee. Dr. Parkinson was formerly a Director of Facet Biotech, Inc., a public biopharma company which was acquired by Abbott Pharmaceuticals as well as a Board Director of Ambit Biosciences, a public biopharma company recently acquired by Daiichi Sankyo. He currently serves as Director on the Boards of Threshold Pharmaceuticals and Cerulean Pharma Inc., public biopharma companies focused on the discovery and development of anti-cancer drugs.

Dr. Parkinson received his medical degree from the University of Toronto. He completed a Hematology Fellowship at Royal Victoria Hospital at McGill University in Montreal and was a Research Fellow at the New England Medical Center at Tufts University in Boston. He has held academic positions both at Tufts and at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications.
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