LEO Pharma Strengthens Focus on Translational Medicine with the Appointment of Adam B. Raff, M.D., Ph.D., as Director and Medical Advisor

Ballerup, Denmark, 9 January, 2019 – LEO Pharma, a global leader in medical dermatology, today announced that Adam B. Raff has been appointed as Director and Medical Advisor in Translational Medicine as of January 28, 2019. Adam Raff’s primary objective will be to support LEO Pharma’s ambitions to advance science within dermatology through translational medicine.

Adam Raff is a Doctor of Medicine (Hons) and holds a Doctorate in Philosophy in Systems Biology and Disease from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA as well as a Bachelor of Science in Biology (Hons) from Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He completed his dermatology training at the Harvard Combined Dermatology Residency Program, Boston, MA. In his current position, Adam Raff works as a Dermatologist at the Department of Dermatology at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA as well as a Dermatology Instructor at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.

With the addition of a new Translational Medicine Unit in Boston, LEO Pharma is taking another important step towards realising its mission of helping people achieve healthy skin by addressing high unmet needs. The bold aim of LEO Pharma is to take the global lead in translational dermatology and immunology, among other by strengthening the way the company uses novel technologies in building a precision medicine platform, and by translating scientific and patient insights to further build the company’s disease understanding.

“At LEO Pharma, we work relentlessly to help patients with skin diseases. We are driven by our desire to offer new, innovative medicines better and faster than anyone else, and our aspiration is to help 125 million patients by 2025. The addition of the new unit in Boston will boost our position in Translational Medicine and help us achieve exactly that. It will strengthen LEO Pharma as a science driven organization by increasing our level of science and dermatology knowledge and thus enable us to explore cutting edge technologies in patients more rapidly,” says Kim Kjoeller, Executive Vice President for Global Research and Development at LEO Pharma.

“With the appointment of Adam Raff as Director, LEO Pharma’s new Translational Medicine Unit in Boston is getting a highly talented dermatology and immunology scientist as well as a skilled leader on board, who will play an instrumental role in strengthening the agenda for translational medicine at LEO Pharma. With his strong disease understanding and his dedication to creating breakthrough treatments, Adam Raff represents the patient-centric approach which is at the core of everything we do at LEO Pharma. We look forward to working together with Adam and the Translational Medicine Unit in achieving LEO Pharma’s vision of becoming the preferred dermatology partner,” said Michael Sierra, Vice President, LEO Pharma Science & Tech Hub in Boston, MA.

“I am joining LEO Pharma because of its people, passion, and purpose. Leading up to my transition to the company, I had the pleasure to work with some incredible people at LEO Pharma and was struck by their creativity, intelligence, and dedication. There is a strong passion within the company to make a positive impact in the lives of patients with skin disease and, ultimately, it is LEO Pharma’s patient centric purpose that inspires me,” said Adam B. Raff, Director and Medical Advisor, LEO Pharma Translational Medicine Unit, Boston, MA.

In addition to his doctorate degrees, Adam Raff has completed extensive training in Photomedicine, Dermatology and Internal Medicine. He has played a key role in establishing the Education Committee and Scholars program of the AID (Advancing Innovation in Dermatology), and has received numerous honours and awards for his work in identifying and developing novel systems and technologies to improve skin health.