Adelaide, Australia, 24th November 2021 – GPN Vaccines is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Paul Rolan as the Company’s Chief Medical Officer. This appointment will significantly strengthen the executive team in preparation for the Company’s upcoming first-in-human clinical trial.
Prof Rolan is a clinical pharmacologist, pharmaceutical physician and pain physician. He has extensive expertise in the development of early-phase pharmaceuticals, having been principal investigator for over 700 clinical trials. He has held a number of industry roles including Head of Clinical Pharmacokinetics at Wellcome Research Laboratories, Medical Director of the UK’s largest Phase I contract research organisation Medeval, Chief Medical Officer for Bionomics and Director of Drug Development for Singapore’s first listed pharmaceutical company iXBiopharma. Paul has also held numerous board and scientific advisory board roles in the biotech sector. In addition to his industry experience, Paul has had numerous academic roles including Professor of Clinical Pharmacology, Head of the School of Medical Sciences and Director of Innovation at the University of Adelaide. He holds a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Adelaide and is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.
Paul continues to advise on drug development for the international pharmaceutical industry and undertakes clinical work in both the public and private sectors.
Paul commented on his appointment, “I am delighted to join GPN Vaccines as Chief Medical Officer and support taking Gamma-PN to the clinic. Pneumococcal disease is a significant unmet need and I look forward to using my experience to help guide the clinical development of this exciting new product”.
GPN Vaccines’ Chairman and CEO Dr Tim Hirst commented, “Paul has an enormous amount of experience in clinical trials and will be providing us with valuable input into design, management and interpretation of data from our first-in-human study. I’m thrilled to welcome him to the Company’s executive team.”
About GPN Vaccines
GPN Vaccines is a public (unlisted) biotechnology company developing a vaccine against Streptococcus pneumoniae, which is responsible for causing life-threatening pneumonia, bacteraemia and meningitis, as well as otitis media (middle ear infections). Each year it causes 1-2 million deaths worldwide, killing more children than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. There are now 100 different serotypes of S. pneumoniae and the best vaccine currently on the market fails to protect against some of the dominant serotypes causing invasive pneumococcal disease. Gamma-PNTM – GPN Vaccines’ new S. pneumoniae vaccine is being developed to protect children and adults against all S. pneumoniae strains, regardless of strain serotype.
