The Female Health Company and Aspen Park Pharmaceuticals names board of combined company
CHICAGO - The Female Health Company and Aspen Park Pharmaceuticals on Thursday named the members of the new board of directors of the combined company who will begin serving upon completion of their proposed merger.
“The Veru Healthcare Board includes some of the most highly regarded and renowned individuals in their respective fields,” stated O.B. Parrish, chairman and CEO FHC.
“This board brings the right blend of commercial, medical, pharmaceutical and financial expertise and experience to help guide management in the operation of Veru Healthcare, a diversified pharmaceutical and consumer health men’s and women’s health and oncology company,” added Elgar Peerschke APP board member and chairman of the new board.
“Since the transaction was announced in April, the management teams of both companies have been working closely to ensure a seamless integration. As part of that effort, we formed a transition team that is focusing considerable attention on advancing APP’s product pipeline and further developing the strategic plan to expand the commercial markets for FC2 in the U.S. and internationally,” noted Mitchell Steiner, CEO APP and Veru Healthcare.
The board of the combined company, to be called Veru Healthcare, will be comprised of nine members, with three directors named by FHC (Parrish, David Bethune and Mary Margaret Frank), three directors currently on APP’s Board of Directors (Steiner, Harry Fisch and Peerschke) and three new directors (Georges Makhoul, Lucy Lu and Mario Eisenberger).
Veru Healthcare's board of directors:
Elgar Peerschke, chairman. Peerschke is president advisory services at Quintiles Transnational Holdings and was previously senior partner in the Global Health Care Practice of Bain and Company;
Mitchell Steiner, vice chairman, CEO and president. Steiner is co-founder, CEO and president of APP, and was previously president, urology of OPKO Health. Steiner is a board certified urologist and was professor and chairman of urology, University of Tennessee;
David Bethune, director. Bethune has served as a Director of FHC since 1996 and was previously chairman and CEO of Zila. He has served as founding trustee of the American Cancer Society Foundation and founding chairman of the Corporate Council of the New York City Children’s Health Fund;
Mario Eisenberger, director. Eisenberger is professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins University, and was previously head of Advanced Prostate Cancer Committee of Southwest Oncology Group. Eisenberger has served on advisory boards for Bristol Myers Squibb, Sanofi, Jansen, Ipsen, Medivation, Astellas, Ortho Biotech, Bayer and others and as an Ad Hoc member of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee of the FDA. He is a founder of Oncology Insights, aclinical trials contract research organization;
Harry Fisch, director and COO. Fisch is a co-founder and chairman of APP, and was previously clinical professor of urology and reproductive medicine at Cornell University. He is a board certified urologist and author;
Mary Margaret Frank, director. Frank has served as a director of FHC since 2004 and is associate professor of accounting at the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia and Academic Director for Darden’s Initiative for Business in Society and was previously assistant professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She has a master’s degree and Ph.D. in accounting from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and has been a CPA since 1994;
Lucy Lu, director. Lu is Interim president and CEO of Avenue Therapeutics and EVP and CFO of Fortress Biotech, and was previously senior biotechnology equity analyst with Citigroup Investment Research and Principal of First Albany Capital;
Georges Makhoul, director. Makhoul is CEO of Constellation Holdings and was previously president of Morgan Stanley Investment Banking Europe, Middle East and North Africa; and led National Science Foundation Research Center at Columbia University; and
O.B. Parrish, director. Parrish is co-founder, chairman and CEO of The Female Health Company and was previously president of Searle's Global Pharmaceutical Group and EVP of Pfizer International division.