A.P. Pharma, Inc. has appointed a new management team. Barry D. Quart, Pharm.D., has been appointed chief executive officer, Robert Rosen was promoted to president, and Steve Davis serves as executive vice president and chief operating officer. Each executive serves on the company’s board of directors.
 
Dr. Quart most recently served as president and chief executive officer of Ardea Biosciences, which was acquired by AstraZeneca in June 2012. Previously, he was senior vice president, Pfizer Global R&D and the director of Pfizer’s La Jolla Labs, where he was responsible for approximately 1,000 employees and an annual budget of nearly $300 million.
 
Prior to joining the company, Mr. Rosen served as global head of oncology at Bayer HealthCare, where he was responsible for the development of the global oncology business unit for regions that included the Americas, Europe, Japan, and Asia Pacific. During his tenure at Bayer, he led the launch of Nexavar for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma and hepatocellular carcinoma, and led premarket activities for Stivarga for gastrointestinal stromal tumors and colon cancer and alpharadin for prostate cancer. Prior to that, Mr. Rosen was vice president of the oncology business unit at Sanofi.
 
Mr. Davis most recently served as executive vice president and chief operating officer at Ardea Biosciences, where he completed numerous strategic transactions, including the sale to AZ. Prior to Ardea, Mr. Davis served as president and chief executive officer of Neurogen, a biopharma company acquired by Ligand Pharmaceuticals.
 
“We are very excited to assemble a team with such extensive industry experience and impressive track records to maximize the value of A.P. Pharma’s lead drug candidate, APF530, and capitalize on the company’s Biochronomer drug delivery platform,” said Kevin C. Tang, chairman of the A.P. Pharma board of directors. “Barry was instrumental in building two biopharma companies, Ardea Biosciences and Agouron Pharmaceuticals, that were acquired by major pharmaceutical companies for more than $1 billion each. Rob brings deep experience in the commercialization of oncology drugs and was responsible for the launch of two products, Nexavar and Eloxatin, that each achieved sales of more than $1 billion only a few years following market introduction. Steve most recently was the chief architect in the transaction resulting in the sale of Ardea Biosciences to AstraZeneca for more than $1 billion.”