2 March 2021 - - UK-based pharmaceutical company 4D pharma plc (AIM: DDDD) has appointed John Beck as chief financial officer and member of the company's management team, the company said.

Beck brings over 30 years of experience in financial and biopharmaceutical industry management experience.

This includes three previous positions as chief financial officer of publicly traded life sciences companies where he has achieved considerable results in areas including finance, business and corporate development, strategy, and commercialization.

Beck has extensive investor and public relations, corporate governance, regulatory, and fundraising expertise.

Most recently he was the senior vice president, Finance and CFO of Ritter Pharmaceuticals from May 2018 to May 2020, where he oversaw its successful merger with Qualigen Therapeutics, Inc.

Prior to that, Beck served as executive manager and CEO at Wellspring Water Technologies, LLC and CEO of West Tech Medical, LLC from October 2015 to May 2018.

Beck also was the CFO and senior vice president of Finance and Operations of Ardea Biosciences from February 2008 to June 2012, where he raised over USD 160m in public financings, executed a USD 400m out-licensing transaction with Bayer Pharmaceuticals and completed a USD 1.2bn merger with AstraZeneca.

Beck also held positions as senior vice president of Finance, treasurer and CFO of Metabasis Therapeutics, and the director of Finance at Neurocrine Biosciences, leading both through successful NASDAQ IPOs.

In addition, Beck currently serves on the board of directors of San Diego-based Artelo Biosciences, as a scientific advisor and mentor to the University of San Diego's student-run Triton fund. Beck holds a B.A. in Accounting from the University of Washington, Seattle, a degree in theology from a Seattle area seminary and is a licensed CPA (inactive status) in the state of California.

Founded in February 2014, 4D pharma is in the development of Live Biotherapeutics, a novel and emerging class of drugs, defined by the FDA as biological products that contain a live organism, such as a bacterium, that is applicable to the prevention, treatment or cure of a disease.

4D has developed a proprietary platform, MicroRx, that rationally identifies Live Biotherapeutics based on a deep understanding of function and mechanism.

4D pharma's Live Biotherapeutic products are orally delivered single strains of bacteria that are naturally found in the healthy human gut.

The company has a research collaboration with MSD, a tradename of Merck and Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA, to discover and develop Live Biotherapeutics for vaccines.

In October 2020 4D pharma announced its intention to merge with Longevity acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: LOAC), a special purpose acquisition company, and seek a NASDAQ listing.