Veristat has appointed James (Jim) Roach, M.D., FACP, FCCP as its new chief medical officer to bolster the expansion of its clinical operations, medical and regulatory affairs offerings. Dr. Roach will assume his position of chief medical officer on December 2, 2016. In this role, he will lead and grow the clinical operations, medical writing, medical monitoring, safety/pharmacovigilance and regulatory affairs teams at Veristat.

“The addition of such a well-respected and highly experienced medical professional such as Jim positions Veristat to provide it clients with fully integrated clinical development support,” stated Patrick Flanagan, chief executive officer of Veristat. “I am pleased that Jim is joining the team to lead the continued expansion of our clinical operations, medical and regulatory affairs teams. His experience and leadership will help Veristat partner closely with our clients; providing them with the strategic thinking, executional speed, operational efficiencies, and expertise to achieve successful clinical trials and regulatory submission results.”

Dr. Roach joins Veristat with over 20 years of experience supporting clinical development, registration, commercialization and product lifecycle strategy at several biotechnology, pharmaceutical and clinical research firms. He brings a diverse background of therapeutic experience that strategically aligns with Veristat’s core therapeutic areas of oncology, rare diseases, CNS disorders and cardiovascular disease. Additionally, his expertise with autoimmune/inflammation will be instrumental to expanding that knowledge base. Throughout his career, he has built and led clinical research, clinical development operations, medical affairs and regulatory affairs teams, working in unison to bring numerous products through the regulatory submission process.

Most recently, Dr. Roach served as senior vice president of Development and chief medical officer at Momenta Pharmaceuticals and prior was the senior vice president of Medical Affairs at Sepracor. He has also held leadership roles in Clinical Research and Medical Affairs at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, LeukoSite (acquired by Millennium) and Astra USA, and also led the Medical Affairs, Safety/Pharmacovigilance and Medical Monitoring functions at Medical and Technical Research Associates (MTRA), a CRO acquired by AAI Pharma. Dr. Roach has also maintained an academic appointment at Harvard Medical School and has been an Associate Physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and member of the BWH Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Division since 1993.

“I am very excited to join Veristat, a company that I know very well and have worked with as a strategic partner for nearly 20 years,” said Jim Roach, M.D. “I view Veristat as a leader and innovator in the clinical development space—always working with clients hand in hand to advance programs cost-efficiently, while maintaining the highest scientific and quality standards. I look forward to contributing to the further growth and evolution of Veristat.”