4D pharma plc (AIM: DDDD), a pharmaceutical company involved in the development of Live Biotherapeutics, announced yesterday that it has named Ed Baracchini, PhD, and Professor Axel Glasmacher, MD, as independent non-executive directors with immediate effect.

Ed Baracchini, PhD, was earlier the chief business officer at Xencor Inc where he led strategic alliances and licensing. During his time at Xencor he negotiated license agreements with Novartis, Novo Nordisk and Amgen among numerous others. Prior to that he served as SVP Business Development for Metabasis Therapeutics.

Professor Dr med Axel Glasmacher was until recently senior vice president and head of the Global Clinical Research and Development Hematology Oncology at Celgene, where he has worked in various global roles for more than ten years. Prior to Celgene, Professor Glasmacher worked within the fields of haematology-oncology at the University Hospital in Bonn.