BIOPHARMACEUTICAL group Amarin has appointed Colin W Stewart as chief executive officer, president and board member, the company said yesterday.

Amarin is an Irish and US-based biopharmaceutical company which is focused on developing treatments for heart disease.

The company yesterday announced that Mr Stewart took over as chief executive on August 16th.

In its statement, Amarin said that acting chief executive Dr Declan Doogan would be continuing “to support the company as chief medical officer, providing Amarin access to the majority of his time”.

Dr Doogan stepped into the role last October, when the company raised $70 million (€54 million), which guaranteed its future for a further three years.

Dr Doogan took on the interim role after previous chief executive Tom Lynch, one-time chief financial officer of Elan, stepped aside from the role.

He is now company chairman.

Amarin said yesterday that Mr Stewart has more than 30 years of experience in executive management and commercial positions in pharmaceutical companies.

He spent five years as president and chief executive of CollaGenex Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for the company’s growth leading to its successful sale in 2008.

Mr Stewart also served 10 years with the Asta Medica Group, where he managed several business units in the US and other countries.

He began his career in sales and marketing for Winthrop Laboratories in Britain.

He subsequently held a number of positions of increasing responsibility within the Sterling-Winthrop Group.

Amarin is running clinical trials for AMR101, a drug that it believes tackles fats in the bloodstream that cause heart diseases.