Barry Clare joins Evgen as Chairman
Evgen Limited (United Kingdom) is delighted to announce that Barry Clare has joined the Company as Chairman effective from 1 November 2009.
Barry has almost twenty years experience in the healthcare industry and was a main board director of the Boots Company plc where he was managing director of the successful consumer healthcare division, Boots Healthcare International, responsible for the global expansion of Nurofen, Strepsils, Clearasil etc. Since leaving Boots, he has run his own company, Clarat Partners LLP, and engineered several private equity backed transactions, including the carve-out of Betapharm, a German generics business, eventually sold to Dr. Reddy for £460m. He has recently set up a new over-the-counter business, Healthcare Brands International and advises technology developers on the commercialisation of their innovations.
Barry joins the Company in parallel to a repositioning of the corporate strategy which will see Evgen develop as a business-to-business technology company, developing novel glucosinolate-based products for the prevention and treatment of human disease.
Glucosinolates, which are found exclusively in cruciferous vegetables, have attracted considerable attention for their chemoprotective properties; as well as their potential to treat a range of other conditions. However, to date, the commercialisation of pure glucosinolates has been impractical due to the economics and complexity of chemical synthesis or extraction from botanical sources. By using industrial biotechnology, protected by a strong intellectual property position, Evgen intends to take leadership in the clinical development and commercialisation of pure glucosinolates and the controlled delivery of their active metabolites for the prevention and treatment of human disease.
Chief Executive of Evgen, Dr Stephen Franklin said:
"We are delighted that Barry has joined us at this important stage in the Company's development. Barry joins us at the same time that we have drawn down further investment capital and he has played a key role in helping to position the business to maximise the value capture from the intellectual property we have under license and the new complementary technologies that we are currently appraising."
Download the press release (.pdf).