CEO Today Europe Awards

87 www.ceotodaymagazine.com CEO Today Europe Awards 2018 the united kingdom MARTIN WHITAKER CEO of Diurnal FIRM PROFILE Founded in 2004, Diurnal is a UK-based, globally-focused specialty pharma company developing high quality products for the life-long treatment of chronic endocrine conditions. We are committed to addressing major unmet clinical and patient needs in hormone replacement, initially by developing and marketing products for the rare orphan diseases Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) and Adrenal Insufficiency (AI). Through our extensive knowledge, experience and persistence we have created a specialized, valuable pipeline of product opportunities for the improved treatment of hypogonadism, hypothyroidism and other endocrine disorders, with the primary goal of improving patient outcomes and lives. Diurnal’s expertise and innovative research activities focus on circadian- based endocrinology (mimicking the body’s natural hormone levels), which has yielded novel product candidates being trialled in patients prior to the submission of a marketing authorisation application. The company’s knowledge of physiology together with our unique approach of developing circadian-based products utilizing approved drug substances, enables it to judiciously focus on optimising therapeutic performance, principally by altering the drug delivery modality and treatment regimes. This approach also enables Diurnal to significantly de-risk its product development programmes, avoiding the need for much of the substantial and costly pre-clinical development activities and thereby enabling new therapies to be available for patients more quickly. Diurnal’s product exclusivity is based around specific orphan drug designations, a patented portfolio spanning several product families and in-depth know-how of matching drug delivery solutions to clinical needs. The company has a strong, multi-skilled entrepreneurial management team with extensive pharmaceutical product development experience and an affiliated network of world-class clinical experts in the area of endocrinology. ABOUT MARTIN WHITAKER Martin Whitaker is Chief Executive Officer of Diurnal with overall responsibility for delivering the Group’s commercial objectives. Martin has over 15 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry and has led the Diurnal team to progress the Company’s lead products, Chronocort® and Infacort®, into pivotal Phase III clinical trials. Martin is also Director of D3 Pharma Limited which has successfully commercialised Plenachol®, a high dose Vitamin D product prescribed in the UK. Previously, Martin worked for Fusion IP plc with responsibility for commercialising research from the Medical School at the University of Sheffield. Prior to this, Martin was Operations Director of Critical Pharmaceuticals Limited, a venture capital- backed drug delivery company spun out of the University of Nottingham developing long-acting growth hormone products. Martin is a biochemist by background and has a PhD in Pharmaceutical Science from the University of Nottingham and a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from Bristol University. Martin also spent a year working for the pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, in Sandwich (UK). He is Honorary Professor of Medical Innovation at The University of Sheffield. W: www.diurnal.co.uk