BASEL, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Therachon AG, a biotechnology company focused on rare genetic diseases, announced today the strengthening of its Board of Directors and executive management team. Hans Schikan, Pharm.D., will the join the Board as a non-executive director. Richard Porter, Ph.D., is announced as the Chief Operating Officer and Jeffrey Stavenhagen, Ph.D. as Vice President of Biology.
“I am delighted to have Drs. Schikan, Porter and Stavenhagen join our team,” said Luca Santarelli, M.D., Therachon’s Chief Executive Officer and Director. “The addition of these three tenured biopharmaceutical executives extends and deepens our scientific and business expertise. With their experience and successful track record, I am confident that we will be able to harness the full therapeutic potential of our drug candidate, TA-46, for children suffering from achondroplasia.”
“I am thrilled to welcome these three industry leaders to our Board and management team,” said Thomas Woiwode, Ph.D., Managing Director at Versant Ventures and Chairman of the Board at Therachon. “Hans, Richard and Jeffrey understand the potential and hope Therachon brings to patients suffering from rare, genetic diseases. Under Luca’s leadership and with the recent completion of our $40 million Series A financing, Therachon is now well positioned to accelerate TA-46 into the clinic.”
Hans Schikan currently serves as Chairman at Asceneuron (Switzerland), Complix (Belgium) and InteRNA (Netherlands), and is a non-executive director at Hansa Medical (Sweden), Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (Sweden), Wilson Therapeutics (Sweden) and Dutch Top Sector Life Sciences & Health (Netherlands). Previously, he was the CEO of Prosensa, which used RNA modulation to treat rare diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). While at Prosensa, he oversaw the M&A transaction with BioMarin for up to $840 million. Prior to that, he held senior strategic and commercial positions at Genzyme and Organon. Hans Schikan received his Pharm.D. from the University of Utrecht (Netherlands).
Richard Porter brings over 20 years of experience working across multiple therapeutic areas in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. He spent over 14 years at Roche in positions of increasing responsibility, most recently as the Global Head of Operations Management for Neuroscience Ophthalmology and Rare Diseases. He has also served as a Product General Manager in the Emerging Business Unit at Shire Pharmaceuticals, and held scientific leadership positions at Vernalis and ASTRA. He has brought multiple projects through development and brings extensive experience at both an operational and strategic level. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Southampton and completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Oxford (U.K.) and at the University of Rochester (U.S.).
Jeffrey Stavenhagen brings 20 years of scientific leadership experience in both the U.S. and Europe using emerging technology platforms for the development of novel biologics. He most recently was a Senior Director at Lundbeck (Denmark) and led their global biologics program to treat CNS diseases. Prior to that, he served as Director, Molecular Immunology at Amplimmune and held roles of increasing responsibility at MacroGenics. Dr. Stavenhagen started his career as an assistant professor at the University of Dayton in the Department of Biology. He received his Ph.D. in molecular biology from Columbia University and conducted Post-Doctoral research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington.
About Therachon
Therachon is a global biotechnology company focused on developing medicines for rare, genetic diseases that currently have no available treatments. The company’s lead pipeline candidate, TA-46, is a novel protein therapy in development for achondroplasia, the most common form of short-limbed dwarfism. This rare genetic condition affects about one in 25,000 children and is caused by a genetic mutation of the FGFR3 receptor, which stunts child bone growth. Therachon is committed to translating the promise of its science into new treatments for patients with high unmet medical needs. For more information, visit www.therachon.com.
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