Brian O’Callaghan has been appointed CEO of Petra Pharma, a New York biotech developing drugs to treat cancer and metabolic diseases. O’Callaghan’s experience includes senior positions at Pfizer (NYSE: [[ticker:PFE]]), Novartis (NYSE: [[ticker:NVS]]), Merck Serono, NPS, and Covance.
Petra also named David McElligott chief scientific officer, and David Renas chief financial officer. The company, which emerged from Accelerator Corp., is based on the research of scientific founders Lewis Cantley of Weill Cornell Medical College, and Nathanial Gray of Harvard University and the Dana-Farber Cancer Center. Last November, Petra raised $48 million in a Series A round of funding.