Novacyt Appoints New Group Commercial Director

Novacyt (ALTERNEXT: ALNOV), an international specialist in cancer and infectious disease diagnostics, has appointed Manuela Gazzard as Commercial Director.

Manuela joins Novacyt to lead and expand its commercial operations, with a focus on building the global cytology market through NOVAPrep®, Novacyt’s cytology platform. She will be a member of the Novacyt executive management and be responsible for the commercial development of Novacyt’s oncology and infectious disease diagnostic products.

Manuela joins Novacyt with substantial experience in both oncology and infectious disease healthcare markets. At Johnson Matthey/MacfarlanSmith, a FTSE 100 Index healthcare company Manuela has been a Member of the Managing Board of Directors, responsible for Group global commercial strategy development, and all sales, marketing and business development activities. Prior to this, she held senior commercial roles with Johnson and Johnson/Janssen, Boehringer Ingelheim and Zentaris.

While at J&J Manuela was responsible for a number of important developments which included the establishment of two new business franchises including Tibotech and the launch of two blockbuster products of which Prezista is the market leader in HIV therapy. Manuela also launched Zytiga, a prostate cancer drug, which achieved breakeven and $1 billion sales after 14 months. Zytiga also won the award for the best ever oncology launch in Europe from IMS, the healthcare consultancy.

Graham Mullis, Group CEO of Novacyt, commented: "With Novacyt now ready for the rapid commercialisation of NOVAPrep®, Manuela’s appointment will be crucial to our future success. She brings with her an excellent track record in commercialising products on a global scale, with particular expertise in oncology and infectious disease and will be active in hiring and developing our commercial team during this next 12 months.”

Manuela’s appointment follows a series of developments for Novacyt since its merger with Lab21 in 2014 including the recent distribution partnership deal in China with Leica Biosystems.

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