4 December 2019 - - US-based late clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Phathom Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: PHAT), has announced multiple executive appointments.

As part of the company's succession plan, Terrie Curran, former president of the Global Inflammation and Immunology Franchise at Celgene, now joins Phathom as chief executive officer.

Founding CEO David Socks transitions to interim chief financial officer and remains a member of the board of directors.

In addition to Curran, also joining the Phathom leadership team are Eckhard Leifke, MD, as Chief Medical officer; Joseph Hand, JD, as Chief Administrative officer; and Larry Miller, JD, as General Counsel.

Phathom also announced that Asit Parikh, MD, PhD has replaced Chris Slavinsky on the company's board of directors.

Curran has more than 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. She has served as president, Global Inflammation and Immunology Franchise and as a member of the Executive Committee at Celgene Corp. since 2017.

Curran joined Celgene in 2013 as the US Commercial Head of the I and I Franchise and built the capabilities and recruited the teams that executed the successful launch of Otezla, which was sold to Amgen in November 2019 for USD 13.4bn.

Prior to joining Celgene, she served as senior vice president and general manager, Global Women's Health at Merck and Co.

She currently serves on the board of Myovant Sciences and previously served on the board of H. Lundbeck A/S. Curran holds graduate and bachelor's degrees from the University of Technology, Sydney.

Dr. Leifke joins Phathom from Omeros where he served as chief medical officer.

Prior to Omeros, he held executive roles at Sanofi, including global head/vice president of Early Project and External Opportunities - Cardiovascular and Metabolism and Global Head/vice president of Late Stage Development - Diabetes.

Leifke has built global teams at pharmaceutical companies including Bayer and Takeda and led the global development of multiple early- and late-stage small molecule and biologic drug candidates to successful marketing authorisations worldwide.

Leifke holds an MD from the University of Freiburg, Germany and is board-certified in internal medicine and endocrinology.

Hand joins Phathom from Celgene, where he most recently served as executive vice president, Global Human Resources and Corporate Services and a member of its Executive Committee.

In that capacity, he was responsible for all employee-related activities including talent development, recruiting, and compensation and benefits.

He was also responsible for the management of Celgene's global facilities footprint. Prior to Celgene, he was a litigation attorney at the international law firm of Jones Day. Hand holds a BBA from the University of Notre Dame and a JD from New York University School of Law.

Miller joins Phathom as general counsel from Cyclerion Therapeutics where he served as General Counsel and secretary.

Prior to Cyclerion, he served as senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of Blue Buffalo where he led all legal activities including those related to the USD 8bn acquisition by General Mills.

Miller has also served as chief counsel for Pfizer Consumer Healthcare, chief counsel for the Pfizer Established Products Business Unit, and General Counsel of Enzon Pharmaceuticals. He holds an AB from Dartmouth College and a JD from Columbia University School of Law.

In addition to the executive appointments, Dr. Parikh joins Phathom's board of directors as Chris Slavinsky steps down following his departure from Takeda to join Prometheus Biosciences.

Dr. Parikh is currently senior vice president and Head of the Gastroenterology Therapeutic Area Unit at Takeda.

He brings to Phathom's Board significant gastrointestinal therapeutic area experience, including the global development of Entyvio and Takeda's other gastroenterology programs.

Dr. Parikh earned his PhD in Biochemistry and MD from Vanderbilt University and completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Pennsylvania.

He also completed subspecialty training in gastroenterology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and postdoctoral work in cancer biology at MIT.

Phathom Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of novel treatments for gastrointestinal diseases and disorders.

Phathom has licensed the exclusive rights in the United States, Europe, and Canada to vonoprazan, a novel potassium competitive acid blocker (P-CAB) in late-stage development for the treatment of acid-related disorders.