Appointment of Mr. James Ward-Lilley as a Director and Chairman
14 April 2020 – Adherium (ASX:ADR) announces that James Ward-Lilley who has been consulting to Adherium over recent months has joined the Adherium Board of Directors, and following the untimely death of Thomas Lynch, James has also been appointed Chairman of the Board.
Mr. Ward-Lilley commented “I am pleased to be joining the Adherium Board and look forward to working with the whole team, executives and Board to ensure the business delivers on its untapped potential for patients and providers and in so doing creates significant shareholder value. This is an exciting time for Adherium with reimbursement for remote patient monitoring now in place in the US, a new high quality management team implementing a focused, market relevant, provider value driven strategy and a clear development roadmap to re-establish Adherium’s market leadership in inhaled medication device coverage including physiological data reporting.
Following the refinancing of the business 2020 is set to be a transformational year for Adherium. Having worked as a consultant in the business for the last few months I am pleased to be able to report a step change in the progress being made in the business and look forward to a very promising series of upcoming news flow, including US commercial progress, in the near term.”
James has a very strong background and experience to bring to Adherium combining operational and executive leadership roles in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries across a range of therapy areas, including a deep knowledge of addressing respiratory diseases.
James had an extensive global pharmaceutical career spanning 28 years across a range of primarily commercial roles at AstraZeneca before becoming Chief Executive Officer of Vectura Group PLC (the inhaled formulation and device development specialist) in September 2015.
As CEO at Vectura James was responsible for leading Vectura through a critical period including the successful merger with Skyepharma. With an agreed shift in strategy to focus on partnered inhaled drug delivery services James stepped down in June 2019 leaving Vectura as a growing, cash generative business with a strong balance sheet and positive pipeline momentum. James has been consulting since.
Whilst at AstraZeneca James had a number of increasingly senior roles including leading AstraZeneca’s business in China to become the number one pharmaceutical company in the market in 2008. James went on to become Regional Vice President for Central Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Following this James led AstraZeneca’s investor relations team during the transition of Chair, CEO and strategy as Leif Johansson and Pascal Soriot joined the business. James was also involved in the activities to maintain AstraZeneca’s independence at the time of Pfizer’s attempted takeover.
James’ final role at AstraZeneca was leading the Respiratory, Inflammation & Autoimmunity franchise with responsibility for the revitalisation of one of AstraZeneca’s three core therapeutic areas including the acquisitions of Almirall’s respiratory business and Pearl Therapeutics. James was responsible for leading AstraZeneca’s corporate device strategy in 2014/15 and was the key sponsor for AstraZeneca’s initial investment in Adherium at the time of the IPO in 2015.
James is a BA Hons graduate, has an MBA and holds the Institute of Marketing Diploma. James’ consulting role will continue until the end of June 2020, from which time he will be a non-executive and independent Director. As part of the Board invitation process the company awarded James 10 million options exercisable into ordinary shares on a one-forone basis, with an exercise price of 4 cents, vesting over three years and expiring 14 April 2027.
Promotion of Mr. Mike Motion from Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) to Chief Operating officer (COO).
Mike joined Adherium in November 2019 as CCO and has over 35 years corporate experience in medical devices and pharmaceuticals directly relevant to Adherium’s future business plans and growth aspirations.
During his time with Adherium Mike has been instrumental in refocusing strategies and activities to enhance Adherium’s networks, product suite and balance sheet. He led the recent successful capital raising. His experience, energies and focus have encouraged the Board to promote him to the key role of COO.
About Adherium (ASX: ADR): Adherium is a provider of digital health solutions and a global leader in connected respiratory medical devices, with more than 170,000 sold globally. The company develops, manufactures and supplies a broad range of connected medical devices for respiratory medications for patients, pharmaceutical companies, healthcare providers and contract research organisations. Adherium’s Hailie® solution is designed to help patients achieve better adherence and provide visibility to parents and caregivers. It does this by tracking medication use and reminding the user with helpful nudges when it’s time to take doses, and by providing access to usage history to better understand patterns in their asthma and COPD. These tools ultimately enable people who live with asthma or COPD to more easily manage their condition alongside their physician.
Learn more at adherium.com.
The release of this announcement was authorised by the Adherium Board of Directors.
Enquiries: Rudi Michelson Mike Motion
Monsoon Communications Adherium
+61 3 9620 3333 +44 7917 688801
+61 (0)411 402 737
rudim@monsoon.com.au investors@adherium.com