Impel NeuroPharma Expands Commercial Team

Impel NeuroPharma, a pharmaceutical company focused on transformative therapies for diseases with high unmet medical needs, has appointed Leonard S. Paolillo as chief commercial officer and Gerald F. Penn as vice president, market access and trade. These key management additions build out the commercial infrastructure in preparation for the potential launch of TRUDHESA for the acute treatment of migraine headaches, subject to U.S. FDA approval.

Mr. Paolillo joins the company from Kyowa Kirin Inc., the North American affiliate of Kyowa Kirin Co. Ltd., a global specialty pharmaceutical company based in Tokyo, Japan where he served as executive vice president, chief commercial officer. He was responsible for the growth and transformation of the commercial infrastructure to enable the successful launches of the company's pipeline products in hematology/oncology, CNS, and rare disease, which led to more than a 15-fold increase in revenue from 2017 - 2020.

Mr. Penn previously served as vice president of market access and trade at Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. and was integral in building out a new commercial department, including managing a team of senior account, contracting and government directors to secure reimbursement and distribution for a new small oral molecule and combination product in the LDL Lipid Market.

Additionally, Rigo Canal was recently appointed vice president, commercial operations and analytics.  Mr. Canal joined the company with over 25 years of pharmaceutical operational experience. Most recently he served as head of commercial operations & analytics at Amarin Pharmaceuticals where he led the commercial expansion strategy and sales planning process for the company's cardiovascular market.  

"I am delighted to welcome these industry professionals to our team at this exciting time in Impel NeuroPharma's evolution into a commercial-stage organization," said Adrian Adams, chairman and chief executive officer of Impel NeuroPharma. "Len and Jerry bring a wealth of commercial strategy and product launch experience in competitive and complex markets, including operationalizing field and managed care teams, market access analytics and formulary negotiations, and product distribution and supply chain management. Collectively, these attributes make them ideal candidates to help the Company as we advance our go-to-market strategy for TRUDHESA™ in acute migraine and continue to progress our other clinical development programs in the acute treatment of agitation and aggression in patients with autism and in Parkinson's disease."