Silence Therapeutics PLC (AIM:SLN) said John Strafford will add the new product development function to his existing responsibilities.
Strafford has been appointed to the newly created role of Senior Vice President, Business Development, Alliance Management and New Product Development, effective immediately.
Strafford, who joined Silence in 2018, has served as Vice President, Head of Business Development and a member of the executive leadership team since 2019.
In his new role, he will continue to drive all business development and alliance management activities as well as lead the new product development function, helping to define the future commercial strategy for the company's proprietary mRNAi GOLD development pipeline, the company said.
Silence is a specialist in short interfering ribonucleic acid (siRNA) therapeutics for the treatment of diseases with significant unmet medical need.
During his time at Silence, Strafford has led the formation of collaborations that have delivered more than US$100mln in upfront payments and represent a total potential deal value of more than US$6bn, the company said.
"John has played a critical role in establishing key strategic partnerships that further expand our portfolio of mRNAi GOLD platform programs and continues to serve as an important source of non-dilutive capital,” said president and chief executive Mark Rothera.
“As we build and advance our proprietary and partnered pipelines, John will be taking on increasing responsibilities in this new role which recognizes not only his prior efforts but my anticipation of all the important work he will be doing during this transformative period at Silence."