French biotech CellProthera welcomes three exceptional talents to its executive management team

CellProthera SAS, a clinical stage biotechnology company developing a novel cell therapy for the regeneration of damaged heart tissue and other impaired organs, has strengthened its executive management team to foster the development of its main clinical program and extend it to new therapeutic indications.

Ibon Garitaonandia is appointed Chief Scientific Officer (CSO). His extensive experience in drug discovery and in the development of novel stem cell products will accelerate the translation of CellProthera’s cell therapy platform into new treatments for regenerative medicine. He has 15 years’ experience in stem cell research and regenerative medicine, and has worked at the Richmond Research Institute in London, Histocell in Spain and International StemCell Corporation in California, the first company to receive global regulatory approval to conduct a human pluripotent stem cell-based clinical trial for Parkinson’s disease.

Henk Streefkerk, MD PhD, takes the role of Chief Medical Officer (CMO). He brings decades of leadership in clinical research to boost the strategic development of the company and advance its pipeline of novel therapeutic solutions. After graduating from the University Medical Center Utrecht, Henk worked as Clinical Pharmacologist for Organon/Schering-Plough in the Netherlands. He then joined Actelion in Switzerland before taking the positions of Translational Medicine Expert and later Senior Brand Safety Leader with Novartis in Basel. After Novartis, he worked as Medical Director and Chief Medical Officer of a biotech specialized in oncology in Basel.

Olivier Friedrich is appointed Chief Financial Officer (CFO). His solid history of helping companies and start-ups to scale up in their development journey is key for CellProthera as it enters its next stage of development. A lecturer at EM Strasbourg in Finance and Regulation, Olivier brings 15 years of experience in corporate finance, internal control, accounting and tax matters. He held leadership positions with Ernst & Young for more than 10 years, leading financial audits and due diligence transactions for a wide spectrum of industrial firms and as CFO, supporting the cash and financing management of listed companies in the energy and car industry.

“The arrival of these three talents - all experts in their field - in the executive management team is a great boost to our ambitious, multi-indications development program and position us ideally to accelerate our pathway to market.", stated Matthieu de Kalbermatten, Chairman of CellProthera. “The wealth of their international experience will be useful to shape and steer the company effectively during the next clinical and regulatory stages.”

CellProthera develops a medical innovation that enables a heart damaged by a heart attack to regenerate by injecting stem cells originated from the patient's own blood.

As such, each patient becomes his own source of medicine!

The stem cell product ProtheraCytes® is obtained from a proprietary technology developed by CellProthera. It is injected into the heart tissue to be regenerated. In a few months, the heart muscle will regain its functionality, thus avoiding future treatments that are often severe, and in some cases, the need for a heart transplant.

Contact us! www.cellprothera.com/fr/

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Press contact: Mediatiser – Antoine Monnier / amonnier@mediatiser.tv