Date: 2015-04-28
Type of information: Nomination
Compound:
Company: Txcell (France)
Therapeutic area: Autoimmune diseases – Inflammatory diseases
Type agreement: nomination
Action mechanism:
Disease:
Details: * On April 28, 2015, TxCell, a biotechnology company developing innovative, cost-effective, personalized T-cell immunotherapies using antigen specific regulatory T-cells (Ag-Tregs) for severe chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, announced the appointment of Stéphane Boissel as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). In addition, Dr. Miguel Forte, previously SVP Clinical and Regulatory, is promoted to Chief Operating Officer. Stéphane Boissel succeeds Damian Marron, who has resigned from the company to pursue other interests.
One of the main initial tasks for Stéphane will be to continue to strengthen the visibility of TxCell within the investment community, specifically in the US and the EU, and to continue to develop TxCell through its pipeline of products and partnerships. Specifically, Stéphane will continue to develop the exclusive worldwide license option agreement signed by Ferring International Center (SA) (Ferring) and TxCell in December 2013 for development of TxCell’s lead product Ovasave® for the treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD), including Crohn\'s disease and ulcerative colitis. The agreement was enhanced with an assignment by Ferring to Trizell Holding SA. Both companies are affiliates of the Dr Frederik Paulsen Foundation. It was further recently expanded to bring forward the phase III development and commercialization of TxCell’s lead product Ovasave and funding from Trizell. Ferring
remains the intended final commercializing party for Ovasave in IBD.
Dr. Miguel Forte will focus directly on the development of the TxCell product portfolio and the supply chain. Ovasave®, TxCell’s lead product, is currently in a phase IIb clinical trial for refractory Crohn’s disease. Top line results of this study are expected at the end of 2016 / early 2017. Miguel will also continue to develop Col-Treg, its second product candidate from its ASTrIA platform. Col-Treg is set to start a phase I/II proof of principle clinical study in autoimmune uveitis mid-2015.
Prior to joining TxCell, Stéphane was CEO of Genclis, a molecular diagnostic company. He was previously EVP and CFO of Transgene
SA (2010 to 2014). Mr. Boissel has also worked at Innate Pharma SA, firstly as CFO and then as EVP and CFO (2002 to 2010). During his tenure at both Transgene and Innate Pharma, he led several rounds of private and public placement totaling more than € 150 million. He has also negotiated several major business deals in the US, EU and Asia. In the early part of his career, Stéphane joined the investment banking group Lazard, where he mostly worked in principal investment in France, Singapore and Hong Kong (1994 to 2002).
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