BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) has hired former Inspire Pharmaceuticals executive Tom Staab to become the drug developer’s new CFO.
Staab starts with Durham, North Carolina-based BioCryst on July 1. Current BioCryst CFO Stuart Grant has agreed to extend his employment an additional month until then. Staab has been executive vice president, CFO and treasurer of Inspire since 2003. Staab brings to BioCryst experience working at a publicly traded pharmaceutical company that invested in R&D to advance a pipeline of drug candidates. Raleigh, North Carolina-based Inspire focused on eye treatments and invested in several investigational eye treatments.
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Inspire was recently acquired by Merck (NYSE:MRK) for $430 million. That deal followed Inspire’s failed bid to expand into pulmonary treatments when its cystic fibrosis drug candidate fell short of targets in a late-stage clinical trial. With the purchase, Merck said it will close Inspire’s Raleigh office and lay off some of the company’s workers.
Before joining Inspire, Staab was an executive at Triangle Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired for $465 million by Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) in 2003. Prior to Triangle Pharmaceuticals, Staab spent eight years at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Staab is a certified public accountant and received a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a Masters of Accounting, both from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
BioCryst does not yet draw revenue from any U. S. Food and Administration-approved drugs, but the company has several promising drug candidates in development. Experimental influenza treatment peramivir is in late-stage clinical trials under a development agreement with the federal government. The company also recently committed part of a new $5 million investment to additional mid-stage trials for a new gout treatment. The company has additional pre-clinical compounds discovered within BioCryst’s laboratories.
“Tom Staab brings nearly 20 years of finance and biotech accomplishments to BioCryst,” CEO Jon Stonehouse said in a statement. “We expect his experience and reputation in the industry to enable us to sustain our solid financial footing and to help us achieve our goal of building an enduring, successful biopharmaceutical company.”
