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Violetta Georgescu-Kyburz (Chief Executive Officer)
 Violetta Georgescu-Kyburz is an economist by training, with further education at the Ashridge Business School and London Business School. In addition, she has been trained in psychology. She has more than 20 years experience in marketing, business development, and in the development of biotech products. She worked for several years for Ciba-Geigy as deputy marketing director, where she was responsible for cardiovascular products for the Swiss market. In 1988 she joined Roche, where she worked in different positions with increasing responsibility (covering early research up to mature product life cycle management). In 2001 she was promoted to a senior management position. When she left Roche, she was responsible for the development of MabThera/Rituxan, a monoclonal antibody against CD20, in cancer and autoimmune diseases.
Dr. Michael Rudolf (Chief Scientific Officer)
 Michael Rudolf received a PhD degree in immunology from the University of Berne, Switzerland in 1996. Between 1997 and 2000, Michael carried out his post-doctoral training in the group of Prof. W. Martin Kast at Loyola University in Chicago, USA, where he ran several projects in the field of tumour immunology in Papilloma virus induced cancer and cell culture techniques of primary human lymphocytes. In 2000 he moved to San Diego to join Biogen Idec as a staff research scientist, where he worked until his return to Switzerland in late 2005. At Biogen Idec Michael was responsible for the preclinical development of monoclonal antibody candidates targeting tumour cells as well as designing in vivo models for proof-of-concept studies. During his scientific career, he has won several awards for his research and has published over 30 peer-reviewed papers.
Laurence Blazianu (Head Business Development)
 Laurence Blazianu brings to Kenta Biotech a Business Development, and Sales & Marketing pharmaceutical experience. Laurence has 10 years experience in Global Pharmaceuticals. At Hoffmann-La Roche, she was Global Business Development Manager working on in and out-licensing projects at the Headquarters in Switzerland, and was in Sales & Strategic Market Analytics in the US and UK. Laurence then moved to the banking sector as Global Biotech and Pharmaceutical Analyst at the Credit Suisse Headquarters, and then transitioned to a Japanese based biotech company, Shogoo AG, in charge of Corporate Development, including fundings and partnering activities. Laurence graduated from an international business school in France, and got further training at University of California San Diego in the US.
Dr. Horst D. Blasey (Head of Operations)
 Horst D. Blasey holds a PhD degree in Science from the Univ. Hannover (1990) and an Engineering degree from the TU München (1981). He also received training on Marketing at a private Business School in Switzerland.
Horst has worked for more than 25 years in the field of recombinant protein production, deploying microbial and in particular mammalian production technologies. He was with companies including Boehringer Mannheim (now Roche), Glaxo and Serono. A major accomplishment was the development of a biogeneric product at Siegfried Biologics where he continued developing improved biologics up to pre-clinic stage and was engaged in establishing the biologics business unit. Before joining Kenta Biotech he worked as an independent consultant for the pharmaceutical industry.
Dr. Toni Perez (Senior Advisor Clinical Development)
 Toni Perez is a MD, specialist in Intensive Care, with diplomas of Pharmaceutical Industry Medicine and General Management Program. He has held several positions: at Novartis (Basel) as Head of Clinical Research of Infectious Diseases, Roche´s spin-off Basilea Pharmaceutica (Basel) Head of Clinical Research of Anti-Infectives, Almirall (Barcelona) Therapeutic Area Head of Clinical Research in Oncology, Gastrointestinal Track and Central Nervous System and at Esteve (Barcelona) Medical Director, and Member of the Board of Directors. He is advisor of pharmaceutical companies, biotechs and a CRO. He has contributed to the development, registration, launch and marketing of medicines in infectious diseases, oncology, central nervous system, and gastro-intestinal and urinary tracts among others. He has published 35 papers, some chapters in medical books, more than 70 abstracts and he has been an invited speaker in congresses, meetings and postgraduate courses.
Dr. Markus Tarköy (Head of Process Development)
 Markus Tarköy was trained as an organic chemist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland (ETHZ) and received also his PhD degree from the same institute. He pursued his studies for two years as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California at Los Angeles, USA broadening his horizons in analytical techniques of biomolecules. After returning to Switzerland, he worked as a laboratory head for Schreiber Labs (a spin-off supported by ETHZ) before joining Berna Biotech in 1998. During his time at Berna, he has worked in the field of conjugate vaccines and contributed substantially to the development of Aerugen, an octavalent conjugate vaccine for the prevention of lung colonisation by Pseudomonas aeruginosa in cystic fibrosis patients, as group leader of this project for three years.
Dr. Markus Haake (Head of Preclinical Research)
 Markus Haake studied Chemistry in Dortmund and Würzburg and gained his doctorate with an immunological thesis in the Faculty of Physiological Chemistry. In 2002 he moved from academic research into industry and specialised in the development of therapeutic antibodies. Before he joined Kenta in 2007, he worked as Senior Scientist and Project Manager for TeGenero AG in Würzburg and Ganymed Pharmaceuticals AG in Mainz. He was engaged for several years in the generation and preclinical evaluation of monoclonal antibodies, focussing on auto-immunity, organ transplant rejection reactions and tumour immunology. Markus Haake has a comprehensive immunological background and extensive experience in the fields of lymphocyte and hybridoma technology.
Hedvika Lazar (Clinical Development Manager)
 Hedvika Lazar is a biologist by training with further education in pharmaceutical medicine (ECPM). In 2002 she joined Berna Biotech as a clinical development and medical affairs manager, where she was responsible for the strategic product development for influenza vaccines and the development and writing of product literature and promotional material. She was responsible for the conception of clinical trials according to GCP guidelines, study protocol design through discussions with opinion leaders and principal investigators, and the evaluation of clinical data and completion of clinical study reports. She has contributed to the design, rationale, and strategy for toxicology programs, and to the design of clinical studies together with CROs for the monoclonal antibodies project. Overall, Hedvika has more than five years experience in project management and clinical development & medical affairs at MDS Pharma Services and Berna Biotech.
Dr. Verena Gafner (Clinical Development Manager)
 Verena Gafner studied pharmaceutical sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ). In 2002 she joined the group of Professor Dario Neri at the ETHZ and received her PhD in 2005 in the field of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies. During her thesis she developed a monoclonal antibody leading to a patented preclinical product candidate for targeted anticancer therapy. In 2005 she joined Kenta Biotech and started her industrial career in a junior role in clinical development being in charge for the operational procedures and monitoring of clinical trials. In 2007 she took over the position of a Clinical Development Manager with responsibility for the project management of entire clinical studies.
Dr. Christophe Hammer (Head Regulatory Affairs)
 Christophe Hammer is a trained chemist from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, with further education in medicinal chemistry at the Boston University Medical Center. He received his PhD in bioorganic chemistry by the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. He began his career in the pharmaceutical industry with assignments as junior product manager at Abbott Switzerland in rheumatology and product manager at Aventis in Zurich for an oncology product. In 2001 he joined Berna Biotech as regulatory affairs manager, where he was responsible for the global regulatory management of an influenza vaccine product and several development projects. With 7 years of experience in marketing and regulatory positions he joined Kenta Biotech in 2006 and leads the worldwide regulatory activities of the company. |
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