Persica Pharmaceuticals Ltd, a developer of a therapy for chronic low back pain (cLBP), has appointed Edward Littler as executive chairman and David Watson as chief executive officer. The new CEO succeeds Steve Ruston who is retiring and who will remain on Persica’s board. The appointments follow positive Phase 1b clinical data for PP353, a targeted intradiscal therapy for cLBP. Dr Littler, who has a PhD in virology, is a microbiologist and experienced drug developer. He was CEO at ReViral, overseeing the development of a respiratory syncytial virus inhibitor through Phase 2a clinical trials.
Dr Littler is currently executive chairman of Domainex and chairman of MetalloBio. Mr Watson has more than 35 years’ experience in life sciences spanning clinical and corporate development, operations, asset and programme leadership. He was chief operating officer at Enara Bio and Draig Therapeutics and also held senior roles at Immunocore, Biogen and Amgen.
Persica Pharmaceuticals announced the appointments on 23 March 2026.
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