Merrimack Pharma Names Yasir Al-Wakeel CFO

(RTTNews) - Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (MACK) said Thursday that Yasir Al-Wakeel will be appointed Chief Financial Officer and head of Corporate Development on August 11.

Dr. Al-Wakeel will serve a key role in continuing to build Merrimack into a fully integrated cancer company based on a systems engineering approach. Merrimack currently has a pipeline of oncology candidates led by MM-398, which is currently under FDA review for approval in post-gemcitabine metastatic pancreatic cancer.

A physician by training, Dr. Al-Wakeel joins Merrimack from Credit Suisse where he focused on biotechnology as a Director on the healthcare investment banking team. Prior to that role, Dr. Al-Wakeel was one of Credit Suisse's top ranking research analysts covering the biotechnology and specialty pharmaceuticals sectors. In total, Dr. Al-Wakeel spent eight years with Credit Suisse.

Before joining Credit Suisse, Dr. Al-Wakeel was a practicing physician, holding both clinical and academic medical posts in London and Oxford.