ESSA Pharma

Prostate cancer company ESSA has appointed David Parkinson to its board of directors.

Parkinson is a venture partner at New Enterprise Associates. He spent five years as President and CEO of San Franciscan biotech Nodality, which develops oncology drugs based on signalling pathways.

He has also worked in senior R&D oncology roles at Biogen Idec, Amgen and Novartis, and at the National Cancer Institute. His past and present board membership includes the Cancer Steering Committee of the NIH Foundation Biomarkers Consortium, the FDA's Science Board, the American Association of Cancer Research, and the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.

ESSA Pharma’s lead drug candidate for advanced prostate cancer is based on a small molecule compound which blocks a novel target on the androgen receptor, the N-terminal domain. The therapy is aimed at patients resistant to metastatic castration and hormone treatment.