Creabilis, a European biotech specializing in the development of treatments for dermatology, inflammation and pain, has appointed Simon Russell as chief business officer.

Russell joins Creabilis from Novartis Pharma where he held a number global strategic marketing positions and most recently head of global marketing for Ilaris (canakinumab). He was previously head of strategic marketing, biologics where he was responsible for the introduction of a range of novel methods and commercial strategies across the Novartis biologics portfolio. Previous to Novartis, he served as global brand strategy director, biologics at AstraZeneca. Russell began his pharmaceutical industry career as a medicinal chemist at ICI Pharmaceuticals and progressed through a number of product, clinical development, marketing and business development roles with Zeneca and AstraZeneca.