- Seasoned executive brings over twenty years of commercial biotech and pharma experience
Leiden, The Netherlands, January 5, 2016 – ISA Pharmaceuticals B.V., a clinical-stage immunotherapy company focusing on rationally designed immunotherapeutics against cancer and persistent viral infections, today announced that Gerben Moolhuizen has been appointed as the company´s Chief Business Development Officer (CBO).
Gerben Moolhuizen has over twenty years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry in various roles covering business development, product development and general management. His experience spans very diverse fields covering a broad array of technical areas (biopharmaceuticals, small molecules, drug delivery, pharmaceutical development and manufacturing, diagnostics, vaccines, generics). Gerben Moolhuizen joins ISA Pharmaceuticals from OctoPlus, where his most recent role was General Manager. He has been closely involved in the company´s fundraising activities, IPO, and the acquisition by Dr. Reddy’s. and has also been responsible for the subsequent integration of OctoPlus into Dr. Reddy’s R&D organization. Prior to OctoPlus, Gerben Moolhuizen worked, among others, at Pharming, where he held various roles in business development and product development and was also involved in the company´s IPO in 1998 . He holds an M.Sc. from Utrecht University in Medical Biology and an MBA from Erasmus University Rotterdam.
“We are delighted to welcome Gerben Moolhuizen to the ISA team,” said Ronald Loggers, CEO of ISA. “Gerben brings a strong commercial track record in the biopharmaceutical industry and has established an excellent international network in the business development field. Given his background, we believe that he is a great fit with the existing management team at ISA Pharmaceuticals.”
“I am excited to join ISA Pharmaceuticals,” added Gerben Moolhuizen. “The quality of the company´s management team, its immunotherapy pipeline and drug development platform have impressed me. Early results from the current ISA101 development program look very promising and I am convinced that SLP and AMPLIVANT-based drugs, and especially personalized SLP immunotherapeutics, hold significant potential to address cancer and persistent viral diseases.”
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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 the 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). Clinical proof-of-concept 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
SLP® and AMPLIVANT® are registered trademarks in Europe.
