Clinical and Business Development expert re-joins the Company
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, September 3, 2014 – Kiadis Pharma B.V. (“Kiadis Pharma”, “Kiadis” or “the Company”), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing T-cell immunotherapy treatments for blood cancers, today announces the appointment of Dr. Jeroen Rovers, MD PhD, as its Chief Medical Officer. Jeroen Rovers was most recently Chief Medical Officer at Ceronco Biosciences. Prior to that he was VP Medical Affairs at Kiadis Pharma and has remained a consultant to the Company until his re-appointment on September 1, 2014. Jeroen worked at Organon (acquired by Schering – Plough in 2007) between 2005-2008, latterly as Director of Clinical Development and Business Development. Jeroen has more than 15 years of professional experience in clinical development within academia and the pharmaceutical industry. He has a strong background in cell based therapeutics/advanced-therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) and has a wealth of experience in oncology, hematology and other immunology-related fields such as organ transplantation.
Jeroen has significant experience in conducting clinical trials in various oncology indications covering all phases of the clinical development pathway (Phase I to III), having coordinated clinical trials in the EU for various pharmaceutical companies. He has also been involved in early and later stage development of cancer immune therapies and conducted his doctoral thesis on the use of light-activated drugs in the treatment of tumors.
Manfred Ruediger, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Kiadis Pharma, commented: “Jeroen joins Kiadis with a deep knowledge and clear understanding of ATIR™ and of the potential of its underlying technology platform. I am delighted to welcome him as a key member of our Executive Management Team at Kiadis at this important time for the Company. His medical and clinical expertise, coupled with business development connections, will be extremely useful given the stage of our Phase II program and the interest we have been seeing in our field. We feel he will continue to make a valuable addition to our team and help us to make ATIR™ a reality for patients and to develop it to its full potential. On behalf of the team and our Board of Directors we wish to thank Edwin Wagena, Chief Development Officer, for his contribution to Kiadis in the earlier stages since 2008 and wish him all success in his future career.”
Jeroen Rovers, Chief Medical Officer, added: “I am extremely excited to have the opportunity to rejoin Kiadis Pharma and be able to focus on its T-cell based immunotherapy product ATIR™, which has the potential to enable safe and efficacious use of partially mismatched (haploidentical) family members as donors for patients suffering from hematologic malignancies such as acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). All patients in need of a stem cell donor, whether after conventional treatments or innovative approaches like Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies, will potentially benefit from ATIR™. I believe ATIR™ is a truly innovative product and has the potential to become a key part of the next generation treatments of blood cancers.”
