BASEL, Switzerland, October 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Nitec Pharma AG, today announced a substantial expansion of its management team. Nitec appointed Dr. Stephan Witte, as Chief Medical Officer and Head of Global Clinical Development, Dr. Michael Luttgen as Vice President Marketing & Sales, Dr Hans Rensland as Vice President Regulatory Affairs, Dr. Rainer Rogasch as Vice President Technical Operations & Development, Dr. Markus Vogt as Vice President of Quality and Compliance and James Audibert as Vice President Commercial Optimization.
“We are excited to be expanding the Nitec team, with all five candidates having exceptional leadership capabilities and pharmaceutical experience,” said Anders Harfstrand the CEO of Nitec. “Their track record in successfully leading companies to the forefront of the industry is outstanding, and we are confident in their abilities to help taking Nitec forward as a successful specialty biopharmaceutical company”
Dr. Stephan Witte, the Chief Medical Officer and Head of Global Clinical Development, has more than 10 years experience in biomedical research and clinical development. Before joining Nitec Pharma, he held a variety of positions with Altana Pharma AG, Quintiles and ICON Clinical Research. His experience includes design and operative management of global clinical development programs and clinical studies in the indications asthma and COPD. Dr. Witte holds a M.S. in Chemistry and completed a PhD thesis at the University of Konstanz. Subsequently he underwent post-doctoral training at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology in San Diego and completed post-graduate training in pharmaceutical medicine at the ECPM in Basel.
Dr. Michael Luttgen, Vice President Marketing & Sales at Nitec, held senior marketing positions in Mayne Pharma, Cephalon and Baxter Germany during the last four years. At Baxter, he was Marketing Director for Renal Therapies in Germany. His career in the pharmaceutical industry began at Merck KGaA, as sales representative from 1992 to 1995 and the product manager for corticosteroids from 1995 to 1997. Dr. Luttgen originally studied Biology at the JWG University, Frankfurt/M, where he was also awarded a PhD in1993.
Dr. Hans Rensland, Vice President Regulatory Affairs at Nitec, was for the last four years the Director of Regulatory Affairs at Biologische Heilmittel Heel GmbH. Previous to this, he has held senior positions in Regulatory Affairs in a variety of international acting companies including Merck KGaA, Knoll AG, and Intersan GmbH. Dr. Rensland completed his PhD in oncology at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg in 1992.
Dr. Rainer Rogasch will work as Vice President Technical Operations & Development and was previously General Manager and Technical Director at Madaus GmbH. Before, Dr. Rogasch was Head of Production and Development at alphamed Pharbil/PenCef GmbH. Dr. Rogasch also worked in Pharmacy Management after graduating with a PhD in pharmaceutical technology as Pharmacist from the Philipps-University Marburg/Lahn, Germany.
Dr Markus Vogt, Vice President of Quality and Compliance, was formerly Head of Technical Development at Nitec Pharma. Previous to this, Dr Vogt held a variety of positions in pharmaceutical development at Merck KGaA. He received his PhD in pharmaceutical technology from the University of Frankfurt during this period. He originally studied pharmacy at Johannes Gutenberg-Universitat, Mainz, and completed the State Exams in pharmacy in 2001.
James Audibert (based in New Jersey/US), Vice President Commercial Optimization, has over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Most of his career was spent with Key Pharmaceuticals and Schering Plough (SP) where he was involved in US sales and marketing, managed care, global marketing, and research. From 1995 to 2000, he was responsible for SP’s Global Marketing Cardiovascular Business Unit, and then moved to the Schering Plough Research Institute, where he was responsible for developing and implementing new processes for enhancing strategic commercial input into the drug-development process. He retired from SP in 2004. At Nitec Pharma, Mr. Audibert’s primary responsibility is strategic development and partnering for the US market, as well as assisting the founders in overall product development and commercial strategies. He holds a BS in Pharmacy and MS in Pharmacology from Northeastern University in Boston, MA.
About Nitec Pharma AG:
Nitec Pharma is a biopharmaceutical company specialized in the development and commercialization of optimized medicines for the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases and pain. Nitec is headquartered in Reinach, Switzerland, with a subsidiary in Mannheim, Germany. The Company’s most advanced product is LodotraTM, a circadian cytokine modulator (CCMTM) based on a night time release formulation of prednisone, for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) -addressing in particular the morning stiffness characteristic of RA. LodotraTM has successfully completed Phase III clinical trials and will also be developed for other inflammatory diseases. Nitec was originally founded in 2004 as a spin-out of Merck KGaA. The Company is financed by Atlas Venture, Global Life Science Ventures and NGN Capital. For further information about Nitec Pharma please visit http://www.nitecpharma.com
This press release contains specific forward-looking statements, e.g. statements including terms like believe, assume, expect or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may result in a substantial divergence between the actual results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and those explicitly or implicitly presumed in these statements. Against the background of these uncertainties readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The company assumes no responsibility to update forward-looking statements or to adapt them to future events or developments.
CONTACT: Further Information: Dr. Anders Harfstrand, CEO, Nitec Pharma AG,
Tel: +41-61-715-20-46, Mobile: +41-79-83493-20, E-mail:
anders.harfstrand@nitecpharma.com; Jochen Mattis, EVP Marketing & Sales/BD,
Nitec Pharma AG, Tel: +41-61-715-20-47, Mobile: +49-151-17-43-33-77,
E-mail: jochen.mattis@nitecpharma.com
