9 September 2019 - - US-based Cerevel Therapeutics has appointed renowned biotechnology leader Tony Coles, M.D., as chief executive officer, the company said.

Coles has been serving as executive chairperson of the board of directors since December 2018 and will retain this role in addition to his new duties.

The appointment comes as the company prepares for key milestones in the advancement of the pipeline, continued team expansion and broader external engagement.

Coles joins Cerevel Therapeutics following a tenure as co-founder and CEO of Yumanity Therapeutics where he was instrumental in establishing and advancing a drug discovery platform based on live cell modeling that has resulted in three novel drug candidates for the potential treatment of Parkinson's disease, related synuclein disorders and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease).

Coles is a founding investor and continues to serve as executive chairperson of the board of directors of Yumanity Therapeutics.

Previously, Coles served as chairperson and chief executive officer of Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which was acquired by Amgen Inc. in 2013.

Prior to Onyx, he was president, chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors of NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Before joining NPS Pharmaceuticals, Coles was senior vice president of commercial operations at Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., and earlier, held several executive positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb company and positions of increasing responsibility at Merck and Co., Inc.

Coles currently serves on the board of directors of McKesson Corp. and Regeneron and is a member of the board of Trustees for Johns Hopkins University.

He is also a member of the Council for the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC; a member of the board of Trustees for The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; a member of the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent, non-partisan membership organization, think tank and publisher; and a member of the Harvard Medical School board of Fellows.

Coles was educated at Johns Hopkins University, earned a medical degree from Duke University, and a master's degree in public health from Harvard University.

He completed his cardiology and internal medicine training at Massachusetts General Hospital and was a research fellow at Harvard Medical School.

Cerevel Therapeutics is focused on unraveling the mysteries of the brain to treat neuroscience diseases.

The company is unlocking new treatment opportunities by understanding the neurocircuitry of the symptoms that characterize these important, but difficult to treat neurological diseases.

Cerevel Therapeutics has a diversified pipeline comprising four clinical-stage investigational therapies and several pre-clinical compounds with the potential to treat a range of neuroscience diseases, including Parkinson's, epilepsy, Alzheimer's, schizophrenia and addiction.

Headquartered in the Greater Boston area, Cerevel Therapeutics is fueled to advance its current research and development programmes while exploring new modalities through internal research efforts, external collaborations, or acquisitions.