Cathal Friel steps into the executive chair role at Poolbeg Pharma as leadership team beefed up

​Cathal Friel is to focus on Poolbeg’s initiatives including its focus on rare diseases. Photo: Gerry Mooney

​Donal O’Donovan

Businessman Cathal Friel has become executive chairman of Poolbeg Pharma, the same job he had at Open Orphan (now hVivo) as that firm was developed.

Mr Friel, a co-founder and substantial shareholder, was already non-executive chairman of Poolbeg,

As executive chair he will continue to work closely with CEO Jeremy Skillington, the company said.

The move comes as Poolbeg’s wider leadership has been beefed up with hires from Amryt Pharma, another Mr Friel-backed venture that was sold last year for $1.48bn (€1.38bn).

Mr Friel has previously described the recruitment of former Amryt executives – Laura Maher, David Allmond and John McEvoy – as “getting the band back together”.

Poolbeg is a London stockmarket-listed biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialisation of innovative medicines.

As executive chairman, the company said, Mr Friel will focus on Poolbeg’s strategic initiatives including the company’s growing focus upon rare and orphan diseases, while Mr Skillington as CEO will lead the company’s clinical programmes and business development efforts alongside Mr Allmond.

The company also announced enhanced incentives for key senior management that will kick in if shares rise by 85pc and stay sustained at that level over a period of 14 calendar days.

Mr Friel said his change of role reflected the level of time being dedicated to Poolbeg Pharma. “The board felt it was appropriate that I should change my role to executive chairman to reflect my ongoing time commitment and the experience that I bring from my track record of value creation at both ­hVivo plc and Amryt Pharma plc,” he said.

The wider set of enhanced share options will incentivise and retain key members of management, “firmly aligning their interests and reward with that of shareholders”, he said.

“When we established Poolbeg we always had the ambition of replicating Amryt’s success with a focus upon developing sustainable and profitable revenues over a relatively short period of time,” he said.

Mr Friel has so far delivered four stockmarket listings – Fastnet Oil and Gas in 2012, Amryt Pharma in 2016, Open Orphan (now hVivo) in 2019 and Poolbeg Pharma two years ago – developing a model of equity-funded expansion including organic growth and buying low-cost or distressed assets with ­paper rather than cash.