Dr Geoffrey Nichol joins Ikaria

US biotherapeutics company Ikaria has appointed Dr Geoffrey Nichol chief medical officer, with responsibility for its late-stage drug development activies.

"We are delighted to welcome Geoff, who will leverage his extensive experience in driving our late-stage assets forward," commented Daniel Tasse, Ikaria's chairman and chief executive.

"We believe he can help us achieve our vision of becoming a leader in critical care by driving the commercialisation process of our two late-stage product candidates, as well as the FDA approval process for the additional indications we are pursuing for our marketed product Inomax."

Dr Nichol has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and joins Ikaria from Medarex, where he was senior VP of product development.

Prior to this he held several leadership positions at Novartis Pharmaceuticals, and began his industry career at SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals.