E-therapeutics brings in Alison Gallafent as head of IP

Drug discovery company e-therapeutics announced the appointment of Alison Gallafent as its head of intellectual property on Wednesday.

The AIM-traded firm said Gallafent is a UK Chartered Patent Attorney and European Patent Attorney, who would bring “considerable” intellectual property expertise to the company, with more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

“I am delighted to be joining the e-therapeutics team,” said Alison Gallafent.

“I am very excited to be part of the process of creating meaningful intellectual property assets for the company at this stage of its development, based on using the company's computational biology drug discovery platform to develop clinically validated siRNA drugs.”

The company said Gallafent previously worked as in-house patent counsel for a range of pharmaceutical companies, including Merck, GlaxoWellcome, Pliva and more recently as head of intellectual property at Silence Therapeutics.

She also held senior patent attorney roles in several “leading” international law firms, and had successfully represented international pharmaceutical companies in “high-profile and pivotal” patent cases before the European Patent Office.

E-therapeutics said Gallafent would also bring a “wealth of knowledge” of the siRNA patent landscape to the company, and how to strategically operate in the field.

“We are delighted to welcome Alison to e- therapeutics at this point in the company's evolution,” said chief executive officer Ali Mortazavi.

“The combination of her broad industry and RNAi expertise will be a major addition to the team.”

At 0917 BST, shares in e-therapeutics were up 0.98% at 27.42p.