Edinburgh-based immune-metabolic company Kynos Therapeutics has appointed Dr Alison Strutt as chief finance officer.
She will combine her current role as chief operating officer at NodThera while supporting Kynos.
Strutt formerly held a number of senior finance roles at GSK, including as chief of staff to the chief finance officer, where she was responsible for transforming GSK’s financial reporting processes and organisation, as well as leading local completions of the global Novartis transaction.
Prior to time at GSK, she led the UK M&A life sciences team at Deloitte in London.
Damian Mole, chief executive of Kynos, said: “Alison is an exceptional addition to the Kynos leadership team, and we are delighted to have been able to attract her to the company.
“Kynos is rapidly building momentum towards the clinic, and Alison’s experience across large pharma and biotech covers finance at the operational level as well as a strategic outlook.
“This breadth of skill and experience will support Kynos to achieve the strong position that we are aiming for in the near future.”
Strutt commented: “I am very excited to be getting involved in Kynos at this critical point in its journey, and I am really looking forward to working with the leadership team and the Board to help create a leading company in immunometabolic medicine.”
Kynos Therapeutics is developing a portfolio of medicines where there is an unmet medical need for new therapies.
It is a spin-out from the University of Edinburgh, commercialising a decade of drug discovery research on kynurenine 3-monooxygenase (KMO), an enzyme in the kynurenine pathway of tryptophan metabolism.
Its KMO inhibitors work across key indications in inflammation, immunity and metabolism, originally co-developed through a collaboration between GSK and the University of Edinburgh - and is now exclusively licensed to Kynos.
The company is financed by equity investment from Epidarex Capital, IP Group and Scottish Enterprise, as well as a grant from Innovate UK.
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