13th edition

Format
HYBRID

December 3rd & 4th, 2024

IN-PERSON | LILLE, FR

December 11th& 12th 2024

ONLINE MEETINGS

2019 Speakers

We are seeking for speakers to share their experience, expertise, opinions and best practices in BioFIT conferences.
If you are interested, please contact us.

Learn more about BioFIT 2019 speakers

Over 70 international experts from academia, industry and biotech addressed issues to learn about the latest trends and explore hands-on approaches to tech transfer and open innovation in the field of Life Sciences, by sharing their experience and knowledge and keeping these goals in mind: Entail new partnerships, source innovative and competitive early-stage R&D projects, facilitate the emergence of collaborative projects and increase licensing opportunities in the field of Life Sciences.

Anna Bialek Jaworska

Anna Bialek Jaworska

Professor & Economist
PolandUniversity of Warsaw

I am an experienced specialist in the field of corporate finance and accounting. I have extensive knowledge of Polish companies, their finance and model solutions in the field of accounting, business models and sources of financing for private and public firms. I also have extensive experience in data mining, econometric analyses with the use of a panel vector autoregressive model and dynamic panel models. I have many years of experience in acquiring, designing and analysing databases concerning enterprises (including F-01 & F-02 provided by Central Statistical Office, Bisnode, Notoria, AMADEUS, ORBIS databases). My advantage is the ability to deep analyse and understand data, combined with deep knowledge of financial reporting of private and public enterprises and taxes (tax accounting).

Anna Bialek Jaworska

Professor & Economist
PolandUniversity of Warsaw
Anta Gkelou

Anta Gkelou

Analyst, Capital Funds
FranceSofinnova Partners

Anta (AdaGkelou joined the Life Sciences team as an analyst in 2017. She conducted her post-doctoral training at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) on immune regulation of the contractile machinery and cardiac function post myocardial infarction. She obtained her PhD in Clinical Medical Research from Imperial College London in collaboration with Pfizer where she worked on elucidating signaling pathways that regulate corticosteroid insensitivity in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Anta holds a 1st class BSc in Molecular Biology from University of Liverpool, UK. Prior to joining Sofinnova, she was an Immunology Scientist in the Life Science Division of Danone Nutricia Research. Her research and review articles have been published in journals such as the Journal of Experimental Medicine, Current Opinion in Pharmacology, Journal of Inflammation and Hypertension.

Anta Gkelou

Analyst, Capital Funds
FranceSofinnova Partners
Barbora Šumová

Barbora Šumová

i&i Prague
Czech RepublicInvestment Manager – Life Sciences & Healthcare

Barbora Šumová is the Investment Manager for i&i Prague having joined the company from the Institute of Rheumatology where she worked as a senior researcher specializing in autoimmune diseases. Her goal-oriented personality and the desire to connect her scientific expertise with business know-how were the reason to move to the technology transfer area. She obtained her MSc degree in Laboratory methods and preparation of pharmaceuticals from University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague and her PhD degree in Immunology from the Charles University, Prague. Barbora spent several years abroad (FAU, Erlangen, Germany) working on collaborative projects focused on rare autoimmune connective tissue disorders.

i&i Prague is accelerating the proof-of-concept stage of projects in the fields of Medtech, Diagnostics and Drug discovery. The company focuses on projects in discovery, pre-seed or seed phase. Recognition of truly inventive projects with real growth potential is a challenging and risky business. It requires a unique combination of expertise in scientific research and biotech market. Having such expertise i&i Prague offers its help and services to universities, VC companies and funds. Barbora uses her analytical abilities to identify and assess new investment opportunities for i&i Prague. She supports creation, development and commercialization of start-ups.

Barbora Šumová

i&i Prague
Czech RepublicInvestment Manager – Life Sciences & Healthcare
Cheryl Zimberlin

Cheryl Zimberlin

Principal
The NetherlandsM VENTURES

Cheryl Zimberlin, PhD, is part of M Ventures, the corporate Venture Capital arm of Merck KgAA. M Ventures takes an active role in company creation and investment, with the mandate to invest in innovative technologies and products with the potential to significantly impact Merck‘s core businesses. Prior to joining the team she had a successful academic career at top-tier Universities, with a good track record publishing in top-tier academic journals, including Nature. She holds a PhD in Oncology and MSc in Biotechnology. Currently she holds board positions in several M Ventures portfolio companies.

Cheryl Zimberlin

Principal
The NetherlandsM VENTURES
Cyril Teixeira Da Silva

Cyril Teixeira Da Silva

Investment Officer
LuxembourgEUROPEAN INVESTMENT BANK

Cyril is an investment officer within the Growth Capital and Innovation Finance division at the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg.

As a member of the Innovation Finance unit, Cyril provides venture debt financing to innovative European companies in the life science sector.

Prior to joining the EIB, Cyril worked in Singapore as a financial analyst for Alstom, covering Asia Pacific.

Cyril graduated from the business school ESCP Europe in 2014.

Cyril Teixeira Da Silva

Investment Officer
LuxembourgEUROPEAN INVESTMENT BANK
Francesco Ruospo

Francesco Ruospo

Chief Business Officer
The NetherlandsAcademicLabs

Francesco Ruospo holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Rome, a master’s degree in entrepreneurship from the University of Sussex and an Eexecutive MBA degree from the Rotterdam School of Management.

Francesco Ruospo started his career with Elseiver , a science information provider based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. During his seven-year career, he has held various positions in sales, strategy and management. During his MBA, Ruospo had in-depth cooperation with Silicon Valley Unicorn and Flexport on the strategy of European market expansion.

Since 2017, he is the Chief Business Officer and co-leading the Belgian Academictech company, AcademicLabs. The company started in 2015 with one mission in mind: to accelerate research and innovation by bringing transparency to a highly fragmented R&D ecosystem. The platform is used by scientists in universities, R&D driven corporations and research institutions all over the world to identify research partners. It has been recently awarded as top 4 Academia tech Company to look for in Europe at the APE2019 and collaborates with leading Pharmaceutical companies.

Francesco Ruospo

Chief Business Officer
The NetherlandsAcademicLabs
Frédéric Caillaud

Frédéric Caillaud

Deputy General manager Innovation
FranceINPI

Prior to joining French patent office (INPI) as deputy General Manager in charge of Innovation for 5 years, Frédéric was Director of the Licensing and Business Development Department at L’Oréal for 20 years.

He has coordinated the evaluation, negotiation and management of hundreds of partnerships, licensing or acquisition projects throughout the world, importing inventions coming from all industrial sectors.

He has contributed to the development of new methods allowing the measurement of the technological impact of patented inventions and to the ranking of innovative companies .

Prior to joining L’Oréal, he spent seven years working as Licensing and Business Development Director for Fournier Pharma following 4 years as Director of a Genetic engineering Department for Rhône-Poulenc Pharma.

Medical Doctor, Ph. D. in Genetic engineering from Pasteur Institute of Paris, postgraduate in Strategic Management from HEC School of Management.

He is an advisor to several public institutions with respect Patent Strategic Management, Patent Marketing and Patent Rating.

He is regularly giving lectures and trainings (251 up to now) all over the world.

Frédéric Caillaud

Deputy General manager Innovation
FranceINPI
Gary Breit

Gary Breit

CEO
USABreit Ideas

Garold Breit CLP is a leader with extensive experience in technology-based organizations.

Mr. Breit has served as Senior Brand Manager, and member of the Corporate Acquisitions Team at Revlon and as the president of Antibodies Incorporated and RedStorm Scientific.

In academe, Gary re-vitalized intellectual capital programs at the University of Texas, the University of Manitoba, Creighton University and the University of South Alabama.  He has managed complex intellectual property matters for a leading Children’s Hospital since 1994.

Gary founded Southwest BIO, the Texas venture conference.  He is a Founding Judge in the Rice University Business Plan Competition and is a member of the OWL Angel Investment Group.

Gary is an active in the Association of University Technology Managers and in the Licensing Executives Society.  He is a member of the BioFIT Conference Steering Committee.  Gary is a frequent lecturer at the College of Charleston and at the Charleston School of Law.

Gary Breit

CEO
USABreit Ideas
Gerald Law

Gerald Law

Chief Executive
United KingdomInnovation DB

Gerald has a background in Management Consultancy and academia. A London Business School alumnus with a Doctorate from Oxford University, he has experience of several start-ups and their exits, with considerable experience in building company executive boards, which has led him now to sit on VC investment committees, among other roles.

In 2010, he founded Innovation DB, which links those with novel technologies to those who may wish to commercialise them. IDB offers the world’s largest database of technologies available for license, drawing from around 5,000 academic institutions. Now, in partnership with the UK MOD’s Army Futures Command, IDB is developing military-grade AI code to build a new global data intelligence system, that will feed back into the core product, expanding and enriching it significantly.

Gerald Law

Chief Executive
United KingdomInnovation DB
Hans Constandt

Hans Constandt

CEO
BelgiumONTOFORCE

Hans Constandt has a bachelor in medicine, master in biotechnology and information sciences and worked three years at the University of Ghent as postgraduate in bioinformatics. He was active as a senior IT analyst and data architect for multiple small and big companies integrating new strategies for data integration and digital change.

Hans worked eleven years at Eli Lilly as account manager, global senior business consultant, and global knowledge management lead for multiple domains and departments delivering portfolio analysis tools using linked data and semantic search.

Hans completed a master in innovation and entrepreneurship at the Vlerick management school and an entrepreneurial accelerator track at MIT, engaging in several startups as a founder, mentor, board member, and advisor.

Hans believes strongly in the principles of open data and FAIR data and is a linked data evangelizer participating in many hackathons, panels, talks and workshops worldwide. He’s a passionate entrepreneur and avid speaker believing smarter data can truly change lives in the field of life sciences, healthcare and beyond.

Up till now, he founded three companies and is active in four other companies where he is on a mission to digitally transform companies, industries, and some paradigms along the way.

Hans has won many rewards with his company ranging from “Gartner Cool Vendor” to winning the “EY scale-up of the year 2018” across all European startups in all industries. He raised +10Mio Euro, is scaling up his company fast with global recognition and impact and aiming at tripling revenues every year.

Hans Constandt

CEO
BelgiumONTOFORCE
Isaac Haq

Isaac Haq

Analyst
FranceArchiMed Group

Isaac joined ArchiMed in 2018. He started his professional career at Motive Partners, a private equity firm specializing in FinTech and based in London. Isaac has previously worked as a Research Associate in the Gene Editing space for HOF Capital, and as a Business Development Analyst for BioTechspert.

Isaac holds a Bachelor of Medicine degree from the University of Cambridge and a Masters in Finance and Private Equity from The London School of Economics (LSE), UK. Isaac is currently undertaking a PhD in Health Economics & Policy at the University of Lancaster, focused on public and private investment strategies in ATMPs.

Isaac Haq

Analyst
FranceArchiMed Group
João Ribas

João Ribas

Associate
DenmarkNovo Seeds

Joao Ribas is an Associate at Novo Holdings (Seeds team), a life science investor with offices in Copenhagen, Boston, and San Francisco. He invests in and helps build disrupting life science companies in Europe, served from the Copenhagen office.

Joao mentored healthcare startups and taught innovation methodologies around the world, and co-founded a medical device company. He started his VC career at M Ventures before joining the Novo Seeds team.

Joao did his PhD research in bioengineering in Boston, at Harvard Medical School & Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He currently hosts a podcast series (The Future Labs) where he interviews thought leaders on the technologies and ideas that will shape our future.

João Ribas

Associate
DenmarkNovo Seeds
Johan De Meulemeester

Johan De Meulemeester

Global Business Development Manager
BelgiumAllflex Livestock Intelligence

Graduated from University of Ghent Veterinary School in 1993, did a Post Graduate course at the Animal Medical Center in NYC and an Internship and Residency in Internal Medicine in Antwerp. Practiced in a referral practice for several years before joining Fort Dodge Animal Health Benelux-Germany as a Technical Manager. As a Business Manager I left FDAH in 2008 to join Allflex as a Global Business Development Manager with a special focus on our Tissue Sampling solutions. I have been in a global function since and  am now heading the Global Product Marketing team.

Johan De Meulemeester

Global Business Development Manager
BelgiumAllflex Livestock Intelligence
Jürgen Walkenhorst

Jürgen Walkenhorst

Managing Director
GermanyLife Science Nord

Jürgen studied biology/molecular biology in Osnabrück and Aberdeen (UK). After his diploma thesis at the EMBL in Heidelberg, he worked at Genentech, Inc. (USA). He undertook his PhD-thesis at the Max-Planck-Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen. He joined Cellzome AG (Heidelberg, now part of GSK) as the first employee where he was instrumental in setting up the company and was later responsible for IP-issues. After a stint in the patent department of Baxter AG in Vienna, he changed to technology transfer. At Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH, Vienna, he was managing life science inventions developed at Austrian universities.

In 2007, he moved to PROvendis, the central technology transfer agency of the universities of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where during most of his time at PROvendis, he served as a head of the Life sciences team. Except for another stay for one and a half years in Vienna, as head of technology transfer at the University of Vienna, he stayed with PROvendis until May 2022. In June 2022 he became the Managing Director of Life Science Nord, the regional industry network for medical technology, biotechnology and pharma for the German states of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein.

He also holds a Master´s degree in Pharmaceutical Business Development and Licensing from the University of Manchester.

Jürgen Walkenhorst

Managing Director
GermanyLife Science Nord
Karen Godbold

Karen Godbold

Senior Director, Global Public-Private Partnerships
United KingdomPfizer

A dynamic leader with diverse experience leading collaborations, as well as organisational, digital and business strategy in a global environment. Karen brings over 20 years of commercial, marketing, digital and strategy experience. She has been with Pfizer for 15 years during which time she has experienced a variety of roles across Pfizer UK, EU and globally.

In her current role Karen connects Pfizer with leading external science and technology organisations, patient groups, academics and HTA and regulatory bodies, across the, technology, healthcare and pharma industries, leading a diverse portfolio of public-private partnership projects on behalf of Pfizer.

Prior to this role she played a key role in Pfizer Digital in the launch and scaling of digital technology products, across US, EU and China. She was also the global Pfizer Strategy Lead for the Innovative Products Business responsible for a variety of core capability initiatives including driving an enterprise-wide innovation programme and digital strategy. Previously she worked in the Europe Regional Marketing Team supporting the Alliance for a new product launch globally. Karen’s early Pfizer career involved leadership of successful partnering initiatives with the UK’s National Health Service.

Prior to Pfizer Karen worked at AstraZeneca in commercial roles and with the Plant Breeding Institute, Cambridge, commercializing their genomics programme. Karen holds a BSc Hons [Bristol University] and MSc [Aberdeen University] in Biology and is Green Belt Lean Six Sigma qualified.

Karen Godbold

Senior Director, Global Public-Private Partnerships
United KingdomPfizer
Klaus Dembowsky

Klaus Dembowsky

CEO
GermanyAMCURE

Dr. Klaus Dembowsky has been CEO of amcure since 2015. He has over 25 years of experience in research and development for pharmaceutical and biotech companies and a track record of successfully bringing innovative drugs into clinical development and to the market. He worked for more than 10 years at Bayer’s research institute and served in different management positions in the biotech industry, as VP Drug Discovery at Ingenium Pharmaceuticals, Managing Director at Speedel Experimenta, and Chief Medical Officer at Polyphor. Dr. Dembowsky received his medical degree from the University of Heidelberg and habilitated in neurophysiological research in 1988.

Klaus Dembowsky

CEO
GermanyAMCURE
Klaus Hellmann

Klaus Hellmann

CEO
GermanyKlifovet AG

In the eighties, Klaus studied veterinary medicine followed by a thesis in applied biochemistry in boar reproduction at the Veterinary School in Hannover, Germany.
From 1991 to 1994 Klaus worked at Pfizer Animal Health in Germany. Since 1995, Klaus is consulting the industry regarding animal health, the development and registration of animal health products and plans, supervises and conducts safety and efficacy studies testing veterinary medicinal products in various animal species. Since 1997, as founder, he is the CEO of the contract research organisation and regulatory consultancy KLIFOVET AG, Munich, Germany, one of the leading organisations providing dedicated services to support new product development and registration for animal health products. He has extensive experience consulting all, multinationals, family businesses and start-ups how to develop animal health products and has led various organisations to successful granting of marketing authorisations for vaccines, biologicals and pharmaceuticals.

Klaus is active in various animal health and veterinary organisations including the Association of Veterinary Consultants (AVC), the European College for Veterinary Pharmacology and Toxicology, member of AAVP, AAVPT and WAAVP and selected member of organisation committees of AAVM2014-2020 and acts regularly as organiser of international conferences.
Multiple scientific publications on antiparasitics, antimicrobials, vaccines, and novel therapies in various animal species show the broad spectrum of expertise (www.klifovet.com).

Contact: klaus.hellmann@klifovet.com

Klaus Hellmann

CEO
GermanyKlifovet AG
Kostas Skarvelakis

Kostas Skarvelakis

Innovation Business Development Director
FranceAyming

Kostas has graduated a master’s degree in Chemistry and as a PhD in Chemical Process Engineering. He began his career at the University of Technology of Compiegne (France) as a researcher in new processes development related to specific industrial issues. He has been involved as project manager (Gradient) in various technology transfer processes in bio-based and chemical industries and participated in R&D project assessments for the European Commission. Kostas has collaborated (GNOMI) with the STOA office of the European Parliament to realize technological option assessment studies. He started a consulting career in Innovation business in ACIES as a unit manager. He joined Ayming, an international consulting group, in 2007 where he held several positions including innovation financing expert or technical manager in innovation management and R&D project design. Kostas has now a strong experience in management and project design with more 300 projects held in various areas (bio-based industry, nanotechnologies, bio-medical, medical, green energies, circular economy) with different European consortia. Today, Kostas is Business Development Director in Innovation Funding.

Kostas Skarvelakis

Innovation Business Development Director
FranceAyming
Lee Wen Hwa

Lee Wen Hwa

CEO // Director– Affordable medicines Programme, Oxford Martin School
United KingdomACTION AGAINST AMD // UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

Lee is presently the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientist at Action Against Age-Related Macular Degeneration, a London-based research charity focused on tackling the leading cause of legal blindness in developed world at its earliest stages with maximum affordability and accessibility. He is also co-director of Oxford Martin School’s Affordable Medicines Programme, at the University of Oxford.

Previously, Lee directed the Disease Foundations Network at the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC), based at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford. He is an experienced leader in setting up partnerships and alliances with multiple stakeholders to accelerate discoveries for drug discovery. He designed and implemented several strategies in two of the largest and most successful international public-private partnerships for drug discovery – the Structural Genomics Consortium and the European Lead Factory.

He is trained in Biology, Molecular and Structural Biology, Protein Crystallography, Computational Biology and Drug Discovery in diverse places such as Brazil (University of Campinas, Brazilian Synchrotron Source), USA (Scripps Research Institute) and France (Université Paris V).

Lee Wen Hwa

CEO // Director– Affordable medicines Programme, Oxford Martin School
United KingdomACTION AGAINST AMD // UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Lionel Carnot

Lionel Carnot

Partner
GermanyEARLYBIRD

Lionel is a Partner with Earlybird Venture Capital and a Managing Director with Bay City Capital. Lionel contributes a wealth of know-how in the biotechnology, medtech, diagnostic, R&D tools and service fields.

Prior to joining The Pritzker Organization in 2000, Lionel was a principal at Oracle Partners, a healthcare hedge fund. He also held several positions in the industry, including Product Manager at Eli Lilly as well as several sales and marketing positions at Sanofi. Lionel was also a strategy and management consultant to the healthcare industry while at Booz Allen & Hamilton and Accenture Strategic Services. Lionel’s investment activities focus on medical-device companies, biotechnology, as well as diagnostic and specialty pharmaceuticals.

Lionel is a member of the Board of Directors of iQone Healthcare, Oculis SA and iStar Medical. Previously he had board roles with Madrigal Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: MDGL), Reliant Pharmaceuticals, Merus N.V. (NASDAQ: MRUS), Interleukin Genetics (NASDAQ: ILIU), Pathway Diagnostics, BioSeek, Nexus Dx, and Nabsys.

Lionel holds an MBA with Distinction from INSEAD and an M.Sc. in Molecular Biology from the University of Geneva.

Lionel Carnot

Partner
GermanyEARLYBIRD
Lotfi Yelles Chaouche

Lotfi Yelles Chaouche

Partner
BelgiumTheodorus Investment Funds

Lotfi Yelles Chaouche is a partner with Theodorus, the spin-off investment fund of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), where he is responsible for the Lifesciences investments. Lotfi has a background in consulting at Mckinsey & Company where he primarily served the Pharma, Biotech & Medtech industries on a wide range of topics. He holds a Master degree in Aerospace Engineering (M.Eng.) and Business Engineering from ISAE-Supaero, in France.

Lotfi Yelles Chaouche

Partner
BelgiumTheodorus Investment Funds
Louise Jonshammar

Louise Jonshammar

Attorney at law
SwedenAWA

Louise Jonshammar is an Attorney at Law with extensive experience in Swedish and European patent law and regulations with a specialisation in European Supplementary Protection certificates.

Louise strategically assists clients to manage their inventions by ensuring that value is maintained and maximised, securing and sustaining a competitive advantage for them in increasingly crowded markets.

Her clients range from pharmaceutical giants to promising IP-rich start-ups, with a focus on turning research results into profitable intellectual assets. She has worked with clients of all sizes across a range of industries to manage their intellectual property rights. This includes through licensing and transfer, and to develop IP strategies and internal processes that align with a company’s business plan.

She also has experience with collaboration agreements under state aid funding and with data protection under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Prior to joining AWA, Louise worked as a lawyer at the Swedish Patent and Registration Office. In this role she supported examiners with legal advice, drafted guidelines, handled restitution cases, patent pledges and supplementary protection certificates. She regularly held trainings on the legal aspects of patent prosecution, the unitary patent and post-grant proceedings.

Louise’s experience allows her to advise clients from both an administrative and judicial perspective. This unique blend ensures her clients’ intellectual property rights are fully protected, maintained and managed.

Louise is an active participator in the intellectual property and business communities, regularly attending industry events and contributing articles on legal developments to leading industry publications such as World Trademark Review.

Louise Jonshammar

Attorney at law
SwedenAWA
Magali Touroude-Pereira

Magali Touroude-Pereira

CEO
Franceyesmypatent

European and French patent Attorney & Engineer in biotechnology, Magali Touroude Pereira founded the IP Law firm TOUROUDE & Associates in 2015.

Serial entrepreneur (creation of 2 successful firms), she worked more than 15 years for both sides: law firm & Industry (Top french IP firms Regimbeau and Plasseraud & IP manager at l’Oreal).

Convinced of the close relationship of IP with the current economic world, Magali graduated in 2017 from Exec. MBA at EDHEC Business School.

Magali has launched in 2017 a  disruptive digital service of patent attorney, unique in Europe, to facilitate access to IP for innovators: YesMyPatent.com

YesMyPatent has already been multi-awarded and recognised as the « Digital Service of the Year 2017 » by the French Chamber of Commerce.

Besides IP, Magali is also a contract specialist (drafting and negotiation) and is co-author of the book « Drafting agreements in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries » (Oxford University Press).

Magali Touroude-Pereira

CEO
Franceyesmypatent
Matthieu Coutet

Matthieu Coutet

Managing Partner
FranceAdBio Partners

Matthieu brings more than 15 years of experience in venture capital and operations, having spent a decade in tech transfer as head of company creation at Inserm Transfert (Paris, France) and managing partner at Inserm Transfert Initiative. He handled investments in 14 seed-stage companies including Enyo Pharma, Eyevensys, Sensorion and Inotrem. He also served as VP operations & business development at two French biotechnology start-ups, TherAchon (sold to Pfizer) and Annapurna Therapeutics (merged with Adverum Biotechnology).
Matthieu co-founded AdBio Partners with Alain Huriez in 2016.
Matthieu not only brings a wealth of experience in early-stage investor management, financial and operational strategies, but also a strong network of researchers, entrepreneurs and technology transfer officers with whom he has forged significant partnerships.

Matthieu Coutet

Managing Partner
FranceAdBio Partners
Pierre D’Epenoux

Pierre D’Epenoux

CEO
FranceImcheck Therapeutics

Pierre d’Epenoux, Chief Executive Officer, brings to Imcheck Therapeutics over 20 years of international experience in strategic planning, corporate development and operational management with global pharmaceutical companies & biotech.

In 1995, Pierre founded & managed an Asian affiliate of Merck/Lipha in Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia. Four years later, he joined Merck KGaA in Darmstadt as director of Mergers & Acquisitions. In 2002, he joined Baxter Healthcare as Senior Director of Business Development where he led most of the global restructuring of the renal business.

In 2009, Pierre was appointed Head of Strategy & Business Development Europe at Sanofi, a position he held for four years before joining Theravectys, an emerging Paris-based biotech player developing lentiviral-vector based therapies as its Chief Strategy Officer.

Pierre D’Epenoux

CEO
FranceImcheck Therapeutics

Rafaela Kunz

Open Innovation Consultant, Biotechnologist & IP Expert
GermanyInseaConsulting
Rémi Droller

Rémi Droller

Managing Partner
FranceKurma Partners

Master in Molecular Biology (Paris VI) and Master in Finance and Innovation Management (Masternova – AgroPariTech). Started at CDC Innovation from 2000 to 2003, later joining AGF Private Equity (now Idinvest Partners) where he developed the investment activity in the life sciences and made investments such as Novagali Pharma (listed on Euronext and acquired by Santen) Prosensa Therapeutics (listed on Nasdaq and acquired by Biomarin) Vivacta (acquired by Novartis), IntegraGen (listed on Alternext) Onxeo (listed on Euronext). Rémi joined Kurma Partners in 2010 and is in charge of investments in AM Pharma (The Netherlands), Orphazyme (Denmark), Oxthera (Sweden), Stat Diagnostica (Spain), Zealand Pharma (Denmark) and Dynacure (France).

Rémi Droller

Managing Partner
FranceKurma Partners
Santiago Ini

Santiago Ini

Director of Business Development
IsraelT3-Technion Technology Transfer

Santiago Ini is an Entrepreneur and an expert in Technology Transfer. He is working building Innovative Ecosystems and Technology Transfer Offices around the world, focuses in Africa and South America.
Previously he served as a Director of Business Development in Life Science at the Technion technology transfer office (T3), bringing Technion inventions to international markets and helping to the creation of New Companies, some of them valuated today in more than hundred million dollars.
In the past he played a role as a top manager at Enzymotec, Algatechnologies and Teva Pharmaceutical providing innovation and leadership in the life science sector. He is the founder of Mental Heal, a company that develops a drug for the treatment of schizophrenia and Glaucopharm, a company dealing with the treatment for Glaucoma.
Dr. Ini received his PhD in Organic Chemistry from the Faculty of Chemistry of the Technion– Israel Institute of Technology. From 2000-2003 he did a post-doctoral work in Organometallic Chemistry and Imprinting Polymers at the University of California at Berkeley followed by an MBA. He is author of several scientific articles and an inventor on more than forty patents.

Santiago Ini

Director of Business Development
IsraelT3-Technion Technology Transfer
Sven Arnouts

Sven Arnouts

Business Development Manager
BelgiumPROVAXS – Ghent University

As Business Developer Dr. Sven Arnouts coordinates technology transfer for PROVAXS at Ghent University in Belgium.
He facilitates interaction and collaboration between industry and Ghent University’s experts in infectious diseases and immunity in animal health. In 2019 he started the One Health Platform at Ghent University.
Dr. Arnouts graduated in 1990 as Bio-engineer in animal breeding and cell and gene technology. In 1994 he obtained his PhD in avian growth physiology and immunology at the University of Leuven on an industrial project in collaboration with Solvay-Duphar. From 1994 to 2006 he was global R&D Manager Agriculture at INVE where he was responsible for research activities in animal nutrition for pigs, poultry and ruminants with a special focus on the relation between nutrition and health.
Dr. Arnouts
• is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Flanders Vaccine since January 2016
• represents Belgium in the Executive Committee of the International
Research Consortium STAR-IDAZ IRC

Sven Arnouts

Business Development Manager
BelgiumPROVAXS – Ghent University
Sylvain Sachot

Sylvain Sachot

Investment director
SpainASABYS PARTNERS

Sylvain Sachot is investment director as Asabys Partner. Sylvain joined Asabys in 2018 from Ysios Capital, where he was an associate responsible for sourcing and diligence of investment opportunities in the fields of biopharmaceuticals and medtech. He was particularly involved in the investments in Corwave and Vivet Therapeutics in France, Anaconda Biomed in Spain, Xeltis in Switzerland, Galecto and Oxthera in Sweden. Previously, Sylvain was a postdoctoral fellow in the department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. He obtained his Ph.D. in Molecular Medicine from University of Nantes in 2009. Biotechnologist by training, Sylvain particularly focused during his (post)doctoral studies in the field of gene and cell therapy and lysosomal storage disorders. He has a broad understanding of the needs and the trends in the biopharma and medtech industries. Sylvain obtained his master’s degree in biotechnology with honors from University Paris XII. He also completed an MBA at Esade Business School in Barcelona in 2014. Sylvain has full professional proficiency in French, English and Spanish.

Sylvain Sachot

Investment director
SpainASABYS PARTNERS
Tanya Moore

Tanya Moore

Business Development Executive
United KingdomCancer Research UK

Tanya obtained her first degree in Biochemistry at The University of Sheffield, and her PhD from King’s College London. Tanya joined the predecessor of Cancer Research UK’s Commercial Partnerships team (Cancer Research Technology) in 2002 after ~18months at The British Council’s Education and Training Export Promotions Unit. During her time at Cancer Research UK, Tanya has worked with a variety of UK and international partners and gained in-depth experience of a broad set of translational and commercialisation models including licensing, industry-academic alliances and formation of spin-out companies.

Tanya Moore

Business Development Executive
United KingdomCancer Research UK
Timothée Audouin

Timothée Audouin

Animal e-health Consultant
FranceAnimal e-health Consultant

Veterinarian and holder of a master’s degree in management at ESSCA Business School, Timothée Audouin is an e-health consultant, and supports companies in their strategy in the context of the new digital world. He holds the website esanteanimale.fr, and thanks to his network he helps startups and investors to enter into relationship.

Timothée Audouin

Animal e-health Consultant
FranceAnimal e-health Consultant
Tomas Landh

Tomas Landh

Innovation Sourcing VP, Senior Principal Scientist Search and Evaluation
DenmarkNovo Nordisk

Tomas Landh is since Nov 2014 R&D Innovation Sourcing VP. He was previously Director Strategy and Innovation Sourcing at Novo Nordisk, Diabetes Research. Tomas joined Novo Nordisk in 2003.

Tomas is currently responsible for the scouting and coordination of evaluation of external innovation regarding all aspects of diabetes. In addition, he works closely with the teams responsible for assessing innovation in the other therapy areas of Novo Nordisk, obesity, NASH, CVD and haemophilia. Besides innovative therapies, the Innovation Sourcing team sources and evaluate a broad range of technologies, including new drug delivery systems and protein engineering means. Tomas is also involved in developing new strategic modes of accessing innovation in general.

Tomas has more than 25 years of experience of all stages of drug development, from academia, small businesses, foundations and big pharma/biotech. He received his PhD in Biophysical Engineering from Lund’s Institute of Technology. Tomas is currently an international advisor to LARTA/ NIH- and NSF-CAP programs.

Tomas Landh

Innovation Sourcing VP, Senior Principal Scientist Search and Evaluation
DenmarkNovo Nordisk
Ulrik Rahbek

Ulrik Rahbek

Vice President
DenmarkNovo Nordisk

Ulrik Lytt Rahbek is since 2016 Vice President in Global Research at Novo Nordisk. Ulrik joined Novo Nordisk in 2009 as a Research Scientist.

Ulrik is currently responsible for the Assay, Analysis & Characterisation function where the characterisation and selection of the optimal drug molecules for use across Novo Nordisk’s therapy areas is carried out. This currently includes a wide variety of diverse molecular formats within diabetes, obesity, NASH, CVD and haemophilia.

In addition, his activities at Novo Nordisk have included holding responsibility for global innovation scouting and evaluation of novel technologies and drug delivery systems through which he has been initiating and driving collaborations with both academia and biotech. Ulrik is currently heading up the successful Novo Nordisk research collaboration with the Langer Laboratory at MIT; a truly innovative and interdisciplinary project focused on the development of novel devices for the oral administration of macromolecular drugs.

Ulrik has an in-depth understanding of the pharmaceutical research & development value chain from early target discovery and validation to handover to CMC and clinical development through more than 15 years of experience from academia, biotech and big pharma.

Ulrik Rahbek

Vice President
DenmarkNovo Nordisk
Yann Ferrisse

Yann Ferrisse

Business Development, Head
SwitzerlandGlobal Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership

Yann Ferrisse is Business Development Head  at GARDP since January 2018.
Prior to joining GARDP, he was Managing Director at Alcimed`s regional office in Singapore – an innovation and new business consulting company specializing in life sciences, chemicals, materials and energy as well as aeronautics, space, and defence. While at Alcimed, Yann was instrumental in setting up country offices throughout Europe as well as in Singapore – the company’s first office in Asia and the hub of their APAC activities. There, he also created a network of industry contacts, built strong partnerships with life sciences companies, and assessed several market opportunities.

Yann Ferrisse

Business Development, Head
SwitzerlandGlobal Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership

Contact

Marion Loizurot

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