Lightlake Therapeutics has appointed Mark Ellison executive vice president development, manufacturing and quality. His appointment is part of a process to accelerate drug development at Lightlake following U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the company’s first product, Narcan Nasal Spray, by Lightlake’s commercial partner, Adapt Pharma.

“With Adapt’s success in obtaining marketing approval for Narcan Nasal Spray we are now focused on accelerating advancement of our drug development pipeline,” said Roger Crystal, chief executive officer, Lightlake. “Mark’s skills and experience will be invaluable to us as we move our lead indications of binge eating disorder and cocaine addiction through the clinic.”

Dr. Ellison brings more than 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry developing products in the therapeutic areas of gastrointestinal, malignant disease, critical care, respiratory, wound healing and diabetes. Most recently, Dr. Ellison was head of technical affairs at SLA Pharma and has also held management positions at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), Link Pharmaceuticals, DMV International and Merck.