Dimerix names new director, scientific advisor

Drug discovery assay developer Dimerix Bioscience has appointed a new director, and a new member of its scientific advisory team.

Experienced public company director David Franklyn has joined the Dimerix board as a non-executive director.

Franklyn is currently managing director of Entrust Funds Management and was chairman of Calzada (ASX:CZD) until November 2013.

Dr Brian Richardson has meanwhile become the newest member of Dimerix’s scientific advisory team. Richardson was most recently global head of the musculoskeletal disease therapeutic area at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research.

During his 42-year career in the pharmaceutical industry, Richardson has also held several senior roles at Sandoz Pharma and played a role in the merger between Sandoz and Ciba Research to create the Novartis Institutes.

“Dimerix is extremely fortunate to have the input of Dr Richardson to its programs,” Dimerix chairman Dr James Williams said. “We are pleased that the relevance of Dimerix’s investigation of heteromeric complexes is of significant interest to a commercial scientist of the calibre and experience of Dr Richardson.”

Dimerix is commercialising patented drug assay technologies allowing for the identification of drug targets called heteromers, and for screening to identify hits against these targets.

The company was founded in 2004. It has a laboratory in Western Australia and a corporate office in Victoria.