ONE MORE THING:HAVING JOINED the board in April of this year, former Elan senior executive and Amarin chief Tom Lynch has taken over as chairman of Irish company Sigmoid Pharma.

“Tom has very extensive industry experience and his experience in fundraising and listing companies will be useful to Sigmoid in the future,” company founder Ivan Coulter told me this week.

Coulter had been both chairman and chief executive of the company. “It’s important to separate the two roles,” he added.

Sigmoid was founded in 2003 and is based in Dublin City University with about 20 staff. It specialises in products for gastrointestinal diseases and is at stage two trials of an ulcerative colitis product. It might not sound sexy, but this is apparently a hot area in pharma at present.

Coulter said he would look to partner a bigger pharma group to bring the product to market.

Sigmoid also has products in development for the treatment of Crohn’s disease and oral vaccines. It has yet to generate any sales but Coulter “expects” to be in a position to sign its first revenue deals in 2012.

To date, Sigmoid has secured more than €10 million in private equity funding and €2 million in grant aid. Its backers include Martin Naughton of Glen Dimplex fame.

Coulter plans to raise more funding in the next six to 12 months. “It will be a significant sum,” is all he would say. Sources around town suggest it will be of the order of €10 million to €20 million, and probably involve institutional rather than private investors.

Coulter is also planning to bolster the senior executive team with some appointments before the year-end.

Commercialising pharma products is a notoriously long and difficult process, but Sigmoid appears to be on the right track.