Date: 2017-08-07
Type of information: Nomination
Compound: chief operating officer, chief scientific officer, general manager, members of the board of directors
Company: Uniqure (The Netherlands)
Therapeutic area: Rare diseases - Genetic diseases
Type agreement: nomination
Action mechanism:
Disease:
Details:
- • On August 7, 2017, uniQure announced new executive appointments to its leadership team and nominations to its board of directors. These actions further uniQure's expansion in the United States and add additional expertise in gene therapy research, development, operations, manufacturing and commercial readiness.
- Scott McMillan has been appointed as Chief Operating Officer. He joins uniQure with more than 25 years of biotechnology experience in quality, process development, scale-up, technology transfer from bench to commercial scale as well as manufacturing operations for a variety of active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished drug products including small molecules, proteins, antibodies and vaccines. Dr. McMillan will be responsible for all current Good Manufacturing Process (cGMP) activities at uniQure and all product development functions. He will be based in the Company's Lexington, Massachusetts facility and will report to Matt Kapusta, chief executive officer of uniQure. Dr. McMillan served most recently as Senior Vice President of Quality and Technical Operations at AMAG Pharmaceuticals where he also was a member of its Executive Management Team. Dr. McMillan held similar positions at AVANT Immunotherapeutics and with Johnson Matthey Pharmaceutical Materials, Inc. He earned a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, a Master's degree in Economics and Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware.
- Sander van Deventer has been appointed as Chief Scientific Officer and General Manager. Sander van Deventer, a co-founder of uniQure and Board member since 2010, will succeed Harald Petry, Ph.D. as Chief Scientific Officer, effective immediately, and report directly to Mr. Kapusta. Dr. van Deventer will also resign from the Board of Directors upon the appointment by the shareholders of his replacement, which is expected to occur on September 14, 2017. Dr. van Deventer is currently Managing Partner at Forbion Capital Partners and Professor of Translational Gastroenterology at Leiden University Medical Center in Leiden. He is a trained internist and board-certified gastroenterologist. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam, and became Director of the Laboratory for Experimental Internal Medicine at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam in 1995.
- Christian Klemt has been promoted from Global Controller to Chief Accounting Officer. Since joining uniQure in 2015, Christian has transformed the Finance and Accounting functions at uniQure, dramatically improved the internal control environment and enhanced the financial planning and analysis functions. Christian also oversaw the Company's transition to a domestic U.S. filer and conversion to U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Christian holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from the University of Muenster, Germany and is qualified as a German Certified Public Accountant and Tax Advisor.
- Uniqure also announced the nominations of Mr. Madhavan Balachandran and Dr. Jeremy P. Springhorn to its Board of Directors. Mr. Balachandran is a pharmaceutical industry executive and has more than 40 years of experience in manufacturing and operations. He was previously with Amgen Inc., where he served as Executive Vice President of Operations, overseeing global operations and reporting directly to the CEO. Mr. Balachandran held similar positions at Copley Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Burroughs Wellcome Co. Mr. Balachandran holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from East Carolina University, a Master's degree in Chemical Engineering from State University of New York and a Bachelor's degree in Technology from Indian Institute of Technology.
- Dr. Springhorn is an industry veteran with 25 years of experience in leading scientific, business development, and corporate strategy organizations. Dr. Springhorn currently serves as Partner of Corporate Development with Flagship Pioneering and was previously at Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., as Vice President, Corporate Development. Dr. Springhorn holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Louisiana State University Medical Center and a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry and Biochemistry from Colby College.
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