Sylvia McBrinn joins Board while Oskar Lund becomes CFO of Ilya Pharma

Ilya Pharma, a clinical stage gene therapy company today announced that Sylvia McBrinn has joined the Board, while Oskar Lund has been appointed Chief Financial Officer. Both join at a pivotal stage in the Company’s development. Recent positive results from the first in human (FIH) trial of  its lead candidate ILP100 for treating difficult and chronic wounds point to a superior alternative to the only two other pharmaceuticals currently approved for this indication.

McBrinn is widely recognized as an accomplished commercialization expert with over 30 years of experience in the BioPharma industry for companies including Pfizer and Vernalis. Most recently she co-founded Axerion Therapeutics (now ReNetX Bio) and lead the company as CEO and Board Director to a successful deal with MedImmune. McBrinn also mentored and advised the Rebiotix team through late-stage clinical developments and acquisition by Ferring in 2018. Her therapeutic experience spans neurology, inflammation and rheumatology, pain, infectious diseases, microbiome and urology. At Pfizer she was responsible for building the world’s No 1 Parkinson’s franchise as well as launching Bextra which was regarded as one of the Top Ten launches in US Pharma history.

Lund comes to Ilya from Disruptive Materials, a Swedish nanotech startup and brings a strong track record of successful fund raising combined with in-depth financial management and strategic business development experience in the private, corporate and public sectors, including Paribas and JP Morgan.

“We are delighted to have attracted such high caliber people to these senior positions,” says Evelina Vågesjö, Ilya Pharma’s CEO. “Following the recently released FIH data, we have now already stepped up a gear. Sylvia will help us set priorities for the multiple exciting opportunities lying ahead, while Oskar will be able to direct our major upcoming financing rounds.”

Ilya Pharma is a clinical stage biopharma, developing novel drug candidates from its propriety technology platform to clinical proof of concept in relevant patient groups with identified unmet medical needs. ILP100 represents both a novel drug delivery technology and a novel investigational new product (IMP) and is classified as an advanced therapy medicinal product by the EMA and as a low-risk candidate under the gene therapy umbrella by the FDA.