Leiden, The Netherlands, June 03, 2016 - ISA Pharmaceuticals B.V., a clinical-stage immunotherapy company focusing on rationally designed immunotherapeutics against cancer and persistent viral infections, today announced the appointment of Bart Bergstein as Chairman of its Supervisory Board. ISA´s current Chairman Pieter van der Meijden will remain a member of the Supervisory Board.
Bart Bergstein has a strong track record in working with life sciences companies. He is a co-founder of Forbion Capital Partners, a leading European venture capital firm. At Forbion, he invested in numerous healthcare companies and served as a non-executive director on the board of many portfolio companies. He also has operational experience, serving as CFO of Cellnovo Group SA, where he successfully executed an IPO on Euronext Paris. He started his career at ABN AMRO bank, where he initiated the life sciences team within ABN AMRO private equity, and in his last position headed the Private Equity Life Sciences Team as Managing Director Life Sciences. With his team at ABN AMRO, he built a portfolio of life sciences investments valued at EUR 100m, realizing multiple highly profitable exits. In addition to his role at ISA Pharmaceuticals, Bart holds various non-executive board positions in leading-edge life sciences companies.
“We are really pleased that Bart Bergstein is joining ISA Pharmaceuticals´ Supervisory Board, as he has a wealth of expertise in life sciences investments and in advancing innovative companies,” said Pieter van der Meijden, current Chairman of ISA´s Supervisory Board. “I am convinced he will be an excellent successor as Chairman of the Board and provide valuable guidance during this exciting phase of the company’s development.”
“ISA Pharmaceuticals has the potential to be a leader in the emerging field of cancer vaccination therapy. Its technology holds great promise for improving patient outcomes by offering a benign, yet potent therapeutic approach,” said Bart Bergstein. ”Furthermore, ISA has the capability to advance its technology towards personalized vaccine therapy, developing patient-specific therapeutic vaccines that have already proven their merit in preclinical testing.”
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About ISA Pharmaceuticals
ISA Pharmaceuticals B.V. is an immunotherapy company developing rationally designed, fully synthetic immunotherapeutics against cancer and persistent viral infections. The company has built a proprietary immunotherapy platform based on the Synthetic Long Peptide (SLP®) concept and AMPLIVANT® technology, which have the potential to generate safe and effective immunologic responses with a known mechanism of action. Synthetic long peptides are broadly applicable to multiple targets and ideally suited for monotherapy, as essential components in combination with conventional cancer treatments, and with novel immunomodulators such as Nivolumab. SLP® immunotherapies are designed to fully harness and direct the body’s own defenses towards fighting the disease. In addition, ISA has begun to develop personalized SLP® immunotherapies targeting tumor-specific, mutation-derived neo-antigens. These SLP®s are based on the analysis of specific DNA mutations in a tumor sample, and designed and synthesized for each individual patient.
ISA´s most advanced clinical-stage immunotherapeutic is ISA101, an SLP® immunotherapy targeting human papillomavirus (HPV)-induced diseases. It is currently in clinical development in advanced and recurrent cervical cancer, incurable HPV16-postive solid tumors and anal intraepithelial neoplasia (AIN). Moreover, a clinical Phase II combination trial with ISA101 and Nivolumab is being conducted at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in the US. Clinical proof-of-concept of ISA101 has been established in vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (VIN), a pre-cancerous disease caused by HPV.
The company was founded in 2004 by Aglaia Oncology Fund and is based in Leiden, The Netherlands. For more information, please visit www.isa-pharma.com
