ACT Oncology Appoints New Chief Medical Officer

Gerald Messerschmidt, M.D., FACP Joins Oncology Specialist CRO, ACT Oncology, as Their New Chief Medical Officer


FLEMINGTON, NJ--(Marketwired - Oct 23, 2015) -  ACT Oncology (ACT), an oncology specialist Clinical Research Organization (CRO), is pleased to announce the appointment of Gerald Messerschmidt, M.D., FACP, as Chief Medical Officer (CMO). Formerly a consultant for the company, Dr. Messerschmidt will provide medical and safety leadership in addition to lending his expertise to the development of Sponsors' clinical development strategies. Dr. Messerschmidt is American Board of Medical Specialty Certified in Internal Medicine, Medical Oncology and Hematology and has over 25 years of experience in oncology drug development. He has extensive clinical and product development experience in start-up, mid-size and large corporate settings and has served in several leadership roles for major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and for large global CROs. Dr. Messerschmidt is highly experienced in medical monitoring of early phase studies and has worked primarily in the last two decades in pre-clinical and clinical product development. In addition, he has been a presenter at numerous regulatory panel meetings and has worked on many FDA filings (IND's, IDE's, PMA's, 510-K's, BLA's, ElA's, and NDA's).

"Oncology drug development has increased in complexity, from the basic 'go/no-go' to broad evaluation of targeted sub-populations for unique impact and market positioning. The majority of ACT Oncology's work is focused on targeted agents with novel mechanisms of action, where we are moving away from traditional endpoints to new paradigms to demonstrate anticancer agent efficacy. The addition of Dr. Messerschmidt as CMO will provide our Sponsors with deep experience, not only in creative study designs, but also in quality trial execution," said Patricia Devitt Risse, Pharm.D, CEO and President of ACT Oncology.

"I am very excited to be a member of the outstanding team at ACT Oncology. The company's collaborations with multiple biotech, pharmaceutical and non-profit companies have been critical to successfully bringing important new oncology therapies to patients. I look forward to working alongside this team of committed oncology research professionals to support complex oncology trials," said Gerald Messerchmidt, M.D., FACP.

About ACT Oncology: ACT Oncology is an oncology specialist Contract Research Organization (CRO) that excels in providing cost-effective and responsive oncology drug development support for biotech, pharmaceutical and non-profit oncology organizations. Our team of clinical research experts is dedicated to applying our significant experience in hematology and solid tumor indications in support of our Sponsors' Phase I-III oncology programs, Registries and Investigator Sponsored Trials. www.actoncology.com

Contact Information:

ACT Oncology
Jennifer Mahoney
484-744-3522
jen.mahoney@actoncology.com