Management
Executive Management
• Eric Halioua, Chief Executive Officer
• Etienne Sokal, Chief Scientific Officer
• Béatrice De Vos, Chief Medical Officer
• Carole Monterrat, Vice President of Business Development
• Claude Dedry, Chief Operating Officer
• Eddy Rommel, Vice President of Preclinical Development
Board of Directors & and founders
• Marc de Garidel, President of the board
• Eric Halioua, CEO & member of the board
• Mustapha Najimi, Scientific Advisor
• Etienne Sokal, CSO & founder
Eric Halioua, MBA: Chief Executive Officer
Eric Halioua is the CEO of Promethera Biosciences. He is co-founder of two biotechnology companies called Myosix and Murigenetics.
- Myosix is a tissue engineering company specialising in musculoskeletal cells culture used in the regeneration of the heart muscle. The company has signed a strategic partnership with Genzyme mid-2002 to finance the phase 2 of clinical trial.
- Murigenetics is a Biotechnology company developing therapies for genetic disorders.
He was also a Board Member of a French public biotechnology company called Vivalis, which specializes in the production of avian stem cells lines for the production of vaccines and recombinant proteins.
He was as well principal of the international life sciences practice of Arthur D. Little based in Paris and Boston during 11 years. He has led and conducted work in the areas of strategy, M&A and technology & innovation management for biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical devices companies. Eric also worked as a strategic marketing manager for the “Centre Européen de Bioprospective” and as project leader in the corporate R&D centre of Zeneca in UK.
Eric holds two master degrees (DEA and Magistère) in Pharmacology and Molecular Biology and a Graduate from ESSEC business school (Paris, France), with an advanced degree from the Health Care ESSEC chair.
Professor Etienne Sokal, MD, PhD: Chief Scientific Officer and founder
Etienne Sokal is a paediatrician specialized in gastroenterology with 20 years experience in the field of paediatric hepatology and liver transplantation.
He has taken an active part in the paediatric liver transplantation program, under the direction of Prof JB Otte, a world pioneer in paediatric liver transplantation, since this program was launched at Saint-Luc Clinics in the eighties. So far, more than 700 children have been transplanted and many foreign clinicians have also been trained in the field at Saint Luc Hospital. Pr Sokal is also the leader of a research team actively working on liver associated metabolic diseases in children with an extensive know-how in paediatric hepatology, infectious immunology and hepatic transplantation.
The team is also specialized in in vitro manipulation of hepatic cells (culture, cryopreservation or cellular metabolism). More than 200 peer-reviewed publications demonstrate the level of excellence of the team, which is internationally recognized. The recent breakthrough in liver stem cell technology has also positioned the team within the leaders in the field. Beside clinical activities and laboratory research, the centre has also conducted numerous pharmacological clinical researches thanks to a well-organized paediatric orientated clinical investigation centre
Beatrice De Vos, MD, BCPM: Chief Medical Officer
Beatrice De Vos, MD, BCPM is a native Belgian board certified medical doctor and specialist in pharmaceutical medicine. She trained at the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) and at Erasme University of Brussels. She is a member of the Belgian College of Pharmaceutical Medicine (BCPM). For the past 19 years she worked in leading positions of clinical research and medical affairs departments of major international pharmaceutical companies (Wyeth-Ayerst R&D, GSK Bio, Sanofi Pasteur). She was in charge of the clinical development programs of multiple drug candidates in a variety of therapeutic fields and responsible for the global development of several viral vaccine candidates. She succeeded to develop a rotavirus vaccine for new-borns from bench to bed (Rotarix®). She was the originator of a public private partnership’s (WHO, USAID, NIH, CVP, CDC, and GSKBio) initiative to accelerate the development and availability of rotavirus vaccines in the developing world (RAPID: Rotavirus action program for immunization and development). Today, she has more than 20 publications in international peer-reviewed journals and books. She is an invited lecturer at the University of Antwerp, Institut Pasteur (Paris), Fondation Mérieux, University of Aveiro (Portugal), and speaker at several national and international scientific congresses. Before joining Promethera® Biosciences as CMO, she was Vice President Global Medical Affairs at GSK Biologicals based at headquarters in Rixensart, Belgium and VP Global Medical & Scientific Affairs at Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccine division of Sanofi Aventis, based at headquarters in Lyon, France
Carole Monterrat, PhD, MBA: Director of Business Development
Before joining the lab of Prof Sokal, she has held several research positions within the Rhône-Poulenc Rorer research development team at Dagenham (Essex, UK), where she was in charge of assay development for high throughput drug screening in the field of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis.
She has worked on the Promethera® Biosciences project development, including market evaluation, regulatory affairs and business planning since the beginning in January 2006 while completing a master in business administration at the Louvain School of management.
Carole Monterrat holds a PhD in molecular and cellular biology from the University of Bordeaux (France).
Claude Dedry: Chief Operating Officer
Claude Dedry is the Director of Operation in charge of Manufacturing and Quality Control at Promethera Biosciences.
Industrial Pharmacist and graduate in business administration (EPM, Belgium), he gained his first professional experience at Searle-Monsanto in the department of quality control of the center of European development.
Claude acquired a significative experience with Glaxo SmithKline Biologicals. He was responsible for the supplier quality assurance group then he took several positions as:
- Vaccine Manufacturing Manager : he was Project Manager in Hungary for the construction and the starting up of a vaccine manufacturing plant;
- Packaging Director: he was responsible for all the industrial packaging operations of the vaccines portfolio;
- International Quality Assurance Director: he implemented the Quality Management System of GSK Corporate within the international vaccine production plants.
Since 2003, he has been consultant providing consultancy services in the field of global industrial operations of injectable products. As consultant, he worked for a couple of vaccine manufacturers; he has also been recently involved in several projects in cell therapy and helped several Belgian companies to gain their GMP accreditation.
Eddy Rommel: Director of Preclinical Development
Dr. Eddy Rommel is Director Preclinical Development and has been involved in HepaStem project development since 2007. In this role he defines and designs preclinical studies to support the clinical development program of the products, ensuring that animal studies are conducted according to the best current ethical, animal welfare and scientific standards.
Since 2002, Dr Rommel is founder and Managing Director of Rommel Consulting Partners, a company providing consultancy services in preclinical development of biological products and in laboratory animal sciences and medicine.
From 1988 to 2002 he was Associated Director at GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals in Belgium where he has been in charge of various positions related to in-vivo testing of vaccines and regulatory affairs.
Before joining the pharmaceutical industry, he was awarded Doctor in Veterinary Medicine and Master of Sciences in Animal Productions from the University of Liège (Belgium), graduated in laboratory animal sciences from the veterinary school of Lyon (France) and in business administration from the EPM management school in Belgium. He also served for 2 years as a research assistant at the veterinary faculty of the University of Liege.
Dr. Rommel is an active member of several professional national and international associations related to the use of laboratory animals (BCLAS, AFSTAL, ESLAV). He is the Past Chair of the Working Group on Primates of EFPIA (European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations). He is chair of the biomedical research platform of the association of Belgian pharmaceutical industries (pharma.be) and a member of the Belgian deontological committee on animal research. He also serves as ad hoc specialist for AAALAC International (Association for the Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care).
Marc de Garidel: President of the board
Marc de Garidel is President of the pharmaceutical company IPSEN. Before joigning IPSEN, Marc was a vice-president of Amgen International, responsible for the South Region. His region includes Southern Europe territories, Turkey, Middle-East, Africa, & South America. Prior to that assignment, he was in charge of the Southwest region in 2006 & of the French affiliate between 2000 & 2005. Marc de Garidel built in that period the largest affiliate outside of the US.
He started with Amgen in 1995 as VP Finance Europe & became Corporate Controller of Amgen Inc in 1998.
Marc de Garidel gained his first professional experience with Eli Lilly working in several functions & in different countries such as the US, Germany & France.
Marc de Garidel is a graduate of Harvard Business School (AMP), of Thunderbird (MIM), & of Ecole des Travaux Publics in Paris (Civil Engineering).
Besides his current responsibilities he is Vice-President & Chairman-Elect of EBE (European Biopharmaceutical Entreprises) & has been a founder & president of the French LEEM Biotech Association between 2004 & 2006.
He also serves on the Board of Protein Expert since 2005 & TCLand Expression since 2006, & Promethera since 2009.
Marc de Garidel is also Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur & is a co-author of a book called “La Société du Médicament” published in 2006.
Scientific adviser and member of the scientific board: Mustapha Najimi, PhD
Mustapha Najimi is co-owner of hALDMSC patent and initial shareholder of Promethera®.
Mustapha Najimi is Charged of research at the Université Catholique de Louvain and ex-collaborateur scientifique for the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS).
He earned his doctoral degree (Cell & Molecular Biology) in 1999 at the Université Pierre & Marie Curie in Paris. He is lead scientist of cell culture and quality control of isolated human hepatocytes teams.
He has large experience in stem cell and animal transplantation research and more particularly in progenitor cells constitutive of Hepastem and Hepascreen.
Contacts
PROMETHERA Biosciences S.A./N.V.
Watson & Crick Hill
Rue Granbonpré, 11
B-1435 Mont-Saint-Guibert
(Belgium)
Tél.: +32 (0)10 39 43 00
Fax: +32 (0)10 39 43 01
