Clinical stage pharmaceutical company Vascarta Inc announced on Monday the appointment of Janet Loesberg, PharmD, as the company's fractional chief strategy officer, effective immediately.

Dr. Loesberg will be responsible for corporate strategy development, portfolio and pipeline management, strategic communications and fundraising/investor relations. She will report to Dr. Richard Prince, chairman, CEO & president.

The company says that Dr. Loesberg brings a wealth of pharmaceutical and leadership expertise to Vascarta. She has served in executive global medical affairs and R&D roles at Blueprint Medicines, Janssen Pharmaceuticals (part of Johnson & Johnson), Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer. She was a board member at Ambrx, a clinical stage biotech company. Most recently, as senior vice president of Blueprint Medicines, Dr. Loesberg was responsible for the medical strategy behind the successful launch of Ayvakit (avapritinib) for indolent systemic mastocytosis, a rare haematologic disorder.

"We are thrilled to welcome Janet to Vascarta and look forward to leveraging her deep industry expertise and business transformation experience as we focus on developing Vasceptor for sickle cell disease and osteoarthritis," said Dr. Prince. "Janet is a world-class executive with a proven track record in developing and commercialising medicines and we expect her to contribute greatly to moving our company into the future."

Vascarta Inc is developing efficient transdermal and transmucosal delivery of pharmaceuticals to address inflammatory conditions with an initial focus on sickle cell disease and osteoarthritis.