Poolbeg Pharma plc
POLB:LN
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Overview
Company Profile
Poolbeg Pharma plc (AIM: POLB) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a core focus on transforming the cancer immunotherapy field. The Company’s lead asset, POLB 001, has the potential to expand administration of cancer immunotherapies from centralised specialist cancer centres into community hospitals by making the treatments safer through the prevention of the life-threatening side effect, Cytokine Release Syndrome (CRS). As such, POLB 001 could increase the number of patients that can receive these life-saving treatments, thereby increasing the market opportunity. Poolbeg is also advancing the development of a patient-friendly therapy for obesity with an oral encapsulated GLP-1, offering a differentiated approach within one of the world’s largest markets. With multiple near-term clinical value inflection points, and an experienced team with a proven track record, Poolbeg is focussed on partnering its high value programmes that are targeting large markets and addressing critical unmet medical needs.
Oct 1, 2025
Sep 29, 2025
May 29, 2025
May 28, 2025
Apr 15, 2025
Jan 2, 2025
Sep 18, 2024
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Corporate
Board of Directors
Cathal Friel,
Executive Chair
Cathal Friel is a seasoned serial entrepreneur with a long and successful history and to date has listed five companies on the London Stock Exchange. Cathal is Managing Director of Raglan Capital and serves as Chairman and co-founder of both Poolbeg Pharma plc and European Green Transition plc. Poolbeg was established as a spin-off from hVIVO plc (formerly Open Orphan plc) in 2021, a company which Cathal also co-founded and served as Chairman until June 2025. Prior to this, Cathal co-founded Amryt Pharma plc which listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2016 and dual listed on Nasdaq in 2020 and was later sold to Chiesi Farmaceutici for $1.48bn in April 2023. Prior to that, he was co-founder and Chairman of Fastnet Oil & Gas plc, which listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2012. Cathal began his working career a little earlier than most by having to step in to help run the family business in 1981 at the relatively young age of 16 due to a family illness. He went on to complete his education by taking night classes and received an MBA from the University of Ulster in 1990. Cathal then spent the following five years lecturing on a part-time basis on International Marketing and Business Planning at the University of Ulster whilst in tandem running his own technology services business. In 2001, Cathal was part of the team that successfully established Merrion Stockbrokers in Dublin. Following Merrion’s trade sale in 2006, he founded Raglan Capital which is renowned for building in-house companies that are listed on the public stock markets. Cathal was a finalist in the international category of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2020.
Jeremy Skillington
Chief Executive Officer
Jeremy began his biotechnology career in the Business Development group of Genentech, Inc in California in 2002. At Genentech he was responsible for executing over 40 licensing, investment and collaboration transactions. Returning to Ireland in 2009, he then led Business Development and was a member of the Senior Management team at Opsona Therapeutics Ltd before becoming a founder and CEO of immuno-oncology company TriMod Therapeutics Ltd. He joined German investment fund HS Lifesciences GmbH in 2014 to provide start-up and business development support to portfolio companies ImmunoQure AG and Ethris GmbH. He joined Inflazome on its founding in 2016 and was instrumental in their acquisition by Roche in September, 2020 for €380M (£325M) upfront and significant downstream milestone payments. Jeremy studied Biochemistry at the National University of Ireland, Galway where he was awarded his Ph.D. He performed his post-doctoral research at the University of California, San Francisco in the lab of Prof Rik Derynck.
Ian O'Connell
Chief Financial Officer
Ian is an experienced financial professional with a depth of healthcare and public markets experience. He co-founded Open Orphan plc, was made a Board Observer and as VP Corporate Development led the acquisition of hVIVO & the RTO of Venn Life Sciences. As a member of the core senior management team, he helped drive the company to its position today as a world leader in testing of vaccines and antivirals using human challenge studies. He also worked closely with Cathal Friel and Amryt's senior management on the establishment of Amryt Pharma plc. Ian has corporate finance experience at both Raglan Capital and Deloitte Corporate Finance.
Eddie Gibson
Independent Non-Executive Director
Eddie has over 20 years of experience within the pharmaceutical industry working across multiple geographies and senior roles. Eddie is a Managing Director at Wickenstones Ltd, a global pharmaceutical strategy consultancy, focussing on market access and associated technical disciplines. Eddie currently holds Non-Executive Director positions at O-innovations Ltd, supporting the development and commercialisation of its innovative renewable technologies, and Nanovery Ltd, where he supports the development of molecular diagnostics. Previously, Eddie was a senior director at Aveo Oncology, where he was responsible for new product strategy and European commercialisation. Eddie also spent 9 years at Bristol-Myers Squibb, providing general management and brand leadership through various roles. He is also a Global Pharma Key Opinion Leader at the Korean Health Industry Development Institute. Eddie holds a BSc (Hon) in Chemistry from the University of Bristol and a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford. He has completed the CEDEP management course and has been a member of the International Society of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research since 2013.
Professor Luke O’Neill
Non-Executive Director
Luke O’Neill is Professor of Biochemistry in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology, Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. He is a world expert on innate immunity and inflammation. His main research interests include Toll-like receptors, Inflammasomes and Immunometabolism. He is listed by Thompson Reuters/ Clarivates in the top 1% of immunologists in the world, based on citations per paper. Professor O’Neill is co-founder of Sitryx, which aims to develop new medicines for inflammatory diseases. Another company he co-founded, Inflazome was recently acquired by Roche. He was awarded the Royal Dublin Society / Irish Times Boyle Medal for scientific excellence, the Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal for Life Sciences, The Society for Leukocyte Biology (SLB) Dolph O. Adams award, the European Federation of Immunology Societies Medal and in 2018 the Milstein Award of the International Cytokine and Interferon Society. He is a member of the Royal Irish Academy, EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organisation) and a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Prof. Brendan Buckley
Non-Executive Director
Prof. Brendan Buckley is a medical graduate of University College Cork and a doctoral graduate of Oxford University . For most of his career he worked in academic clinical practice as a consultant physician. He holds professorial titles in the faculties of Medicine at Universities in Cork and Dublin. He has over 30 years’ experience in clinical research in roles as chief investigator, chair of data and safety monitoring committees and on institutional review boards. He became Chief Medical Officer of ICON plc, following their acquisition of Firecrest Clinical Ltd, which he had co-founded. He was a member of ICON plc’s Executive Leadership Team and was actively involved in M&A targeting, assessment and diligence. Firecrest was one of a number of companies focused on clinical trial innovation which he co-founded and sold. Brendan was a non-executive director of the Irish national medicines regulatory authority (now the Health Products Regulatory Authority) between 2004 and 2011. He was a member of the inaugural European Medicines Agency (EMA) Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products (COMP) and of the EMA Scientific Advisory Group for Diabetes and Endocrinology as well as teaching on FDA advanced courses on clinical trials. He serves on the boards of various pharma development and services companies, some of which he has co-founded. Brendan has over 150 scientific publications, including the key opinion-leading book ‘Re-Engineering Clinical Trials’.
Scientific Advisory Board
Professor Luke O’Neill
Scientific Advisory Board
Luke O’Neill is Professor of Biochemistry in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology, Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. He is a world expert on innate immunity and inflammation. His main research interests include Toll-like receptors, Inflammasomes and Immunometabolism. He is listed by Thompson Reuters/ Clarivates in the top 1% of immunologists in the world, based on citations per paper. Professor O’Neill is co-founder of Sitryx, which aims to develop new medicines for inflammatory diseases. Another company he co-founded, Inflazome was recently acquired by Roche. He was awarded the Royal Dublin Society / Irish Times Boyle Medal for scientific excellence, the Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal for Life Sciences, The Society for Leukocyte Biology (SLB) Dolph O. Adams award, the European Federation of Immunology Societies Medal and in 2018 the Milstein Award of the International Cytokine and Interferon Society. He is a member of the Royal Irish Academy, EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organisation) and a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Elaine O’ Sullivan
Scientific Advisory Board
Dr Elaine Sullivan is a Senior pharmaceutical and biotech industry executive with a successful track record in science, investment, business development, and start-ups with over 25 years’ experience. She has extensive global leadership experience including membership of the top senior global R&D management teams at Eli Lilly (US) where she held the position of Vice President Global External Research & Development, and she was a member of Lilly Ventures and Lilly Asian Venture steering Committee. At AstraZeneca (UK) she held a number of positions including Vice President R&D, Head of New Opportunities Therapy Area and Vice President, Science & Technology. Former positions also include positions co-founder and CEO of Carrick Therapeutics. Her board appointments include Member of the Supervisory Board of Evotec AG, Non-Executive Director of the IP Group plc, hVIVO plc, Zealand Pharmaceuticals and Nykode Therapeutics ASI where she is also the Chair of the R&D committee. In addition, Elaine is a member of the Scientific Advisory board of Poolbeg Pharma. She was named Ernst Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year (Ireland).
Daniel F. Hoft, M.D., Ph.D
Scientific Advisory Board
Daniel F. Hoft, M.D., Ph.D. is the Dianna and J. Joseph Adorjan Endowed Chair of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, and Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Allergy & Immunology at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. He has been working in immunology and infectious diseases for 32 years. Dr. Hoft’s interests in infectious diseases started when he served as Senior Malaria Health Officer for the Peace Corps in Malaysia. Dr. Hoft then received his MD from the University of Missouri and was trained in Infectious Diseases at the University of Iowa, where he received an NIH Physician Science Training Award (PSTA) allowing him to complete a Ph.D. in microbiology/immunology. He came to Saint Louis University in 1992 and has received continuous NIH funding since his arrival. His group has pioneered use of immunoinformatics to develop T cell-targeting, “universal” vaccines to protect all human populations against future influenza pandemics. In addition to contributions in pre-clinical vaccinology, Hoft has conducted human trials with the goal of improving tuberculosis (TB) vaccines In 2014 he became the Principal Investigator of SLU’s Vaccine & Treatment Evaluation Unit (VTEU), one of nine NIH centers. which has received millions in NIH funding through contracts and awards, including a Vaccine & Treatment Evaluation Unit contract placing SLU among an elite group of top academic centers conducting phase I through III trials of novel vaccines for global protection against future pandemic challenges. In 2018 he received an Outstanding Scientist Award from the St. Louis Academy of Science. Since the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic the SLU VTEU led by Dr. Hoft has featured prominently in the urgent COVID-19 vaccine development. Currently, in addition to being the PI of the VTEU, Dr. Hoft is the PI on 3 active NIH RO1 awards for studies of universal influenza T cell immunity and optimal mucosal and systemic TB-specific immunity. In addition, he is the VTEU protocol chair for a first-in-human phase 1 trial of a novel COVID-19 vaccine designed to induce both protective neutralizing antibody and protective T cell responses in more than 95% of the world’s population.
Prof. Brendan Buckley
Scientific Advisory Board
Prof. Brendan Buckley is a medical graduate of University College Cork and a doctoral graduate of Oxford University . For most of his career he worked in academic clinical practice as a consultant physician. He holds professorial titles in the faculties of Medicine at Universities in Cork and Dublin. He has over 30 years’ experience in clinical research in roles as chief investigator, chair of data and safety monitoring committees and on institutional review boards. He became Chief Medical Officer of ICON plc, following their acquisition of Firecrest Clinical Ltd, which he had co-founded. He was a member of ICON plc’s Executive Leadership Team and was actively involved in M&A targeting, assessment and diligence. Firecrest was one of a number of companies focused on clinical trial innovation which he co-founded and sold. Brendan was a non-executive director of the Irish national medicines regulatory authority (now the Health Products Regulatory Authority) between 2004 and 2011. He was a member of the inaugural European Medicines Agency (EMA) Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products (COMP) and of the EMA Scientific Advisory Group for Diabetes and Endocrinology as well as teaching on FDA advanced courses on clinical trials. He serves on the boards of various pharma development and services companies, some of which he has co-founded. Brendan has over 150 scientific publications, including the key opinion-leading book ‘Re-Engineering Clinical Trials’.