EWING, N.J., July 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Antares Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATRS), a pharmaceutical technology company, today announced the appointment of Patrick Shea to the position of Senior Vice President of Commercial. Mr. Shea will be responsible for leading all commercial activities including sales, sales operations, marketing, trade and market access for the Company and will report to Robert F. Apple, Antares Pharma’s President and Chief Executive Officer. In his role, Mr. Shea’s primary responsibilities will be to accelerate the positive growth trajectory of the Company’s flagship product XYOSTED® as well as strategic assessment of future potential product opportunities for the commercial organization. He will be replacing Edward Kessig, Senior Vice President of Commercial, who has recently announced his retirement.
Mr. Shea has over three decades of sales, marketing, market access and commercial operations experience. Most recently Mr. Shea served as Chief Commercial Officer of Egalet Corporation, a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on developing, manufacturing, and commercializing innovative treatments for pain where he led a commercial organization of approximately 100 employees. Prior to Egalet, he served as Chief Commercial Officer at Clarus Therapeutics, Inc., a men's health specialty pharmaceutical company. Preceding Clarus he served as vice president of sales and marketing for the U.S. commercial operations of CSL Behring, where he oversaw strategic efforts for sales, marketing and managed care for a specialty biotherapeutics business. Before that he served as senior vice president of sales and marketing for the U.S. pharmaceutical operations at Astellas Pharmaceuticals leading a commercial team of approximately 1,000, supporting a diverse specialty and critical care portfolio which included significant work in urology. Additional commercial leadership roles were also held at Ligand Pharmaceuticals (pain management and oncology) and Boehringer Ingelheim (urology).
Robert F. Apple, President and Chief Executive Officer of Antares Pharma, stated, “We are very pleased to have someone with Pat’s extensive sales and marketing background join the Antares senior leadership team. With a proven track record of leading successful commercial organizations of varying sizes and diverse portfolios in the pharmaceutical industry, we believe Pat will be an extremely valuable asset to Antares as we enter the next phase of growth for XYOSTED.” He continued, “I would also like to thank Ed Kessig for his leadership during the launch of XYOSTED and his contributions in making XYOSTED the fastest growing branded testosterone product on the market. Additionally, we believe the commercial team’s decision to strategically shift to virtual detailing earlier this year due to the COVID-19 crisis resulted in double digit percentage prescription growth in the second quarter of 2020 despite the challenging physician and patient access conditions that exist today.”
Mr. Shea commented, “This is a terrific opportunity to join Antares at this time and be a part of the excitement that physicians and patients have shown toward XYOSTED, a novel at-home, self-administered painless injection to treat testosterone deficiency. I’m looking forward to leading the commercial team as we enter the next phase of growth for the Company and this unique product.”
About Antares Pharma
Antares Pharma, Inc. is a pharmaceutical technology company focused primarily on the development and commercialization of self-administered injectable pharmaceutical products using advanced drug delivery auto injector technology. The Company has a portfolio of proprietary and partnered commercial products with several product candidates in various stages of development, as well as significant strategic alliances with industry leading pharmaceutical companies including Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd. (Teva), AMAG Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AMAG), Pfizer Inc. (Pfizer) and Idorsia Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (Idorsia). Antares Pharma’s FDA approved products include XYOSTED® (testosterone enanthate) injection, OTREXUP® (methotrexate) injection for subcutaneous use and Sumatriptan Injection USP, which is distributed by Teva.
