GHENT, Belgium--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Confo Therapeutics today announced the appointment of Paolo Vicini, PhD, MBA, in the newly-created position of Chief Development Officer (CDO) effective June 1, 2020. With two decades of leadership and scientific experience in pharmaceutical research and development, Dr. Vicini joins Confo from his most recent position as Vice President, Development Sciences at Kymab. At Confo, he will apply his experience in translational and clinical sciences to support the Company as it moves its GPCR modulating small molecules through preclinical studies and into the clinic. He will be based at the Company’s headquarters in Ghent, Belgium and report to the CEO.
Commenting on the appointment, Cedric Ververken, CEO of Confo Therapeutics said: “Confo is focused on strategically expanding and shaping the Company to facilitate the rapid advancement of our first drug candidates. With his years of experience working with both small molecules and biologics as well as his time overseeing all aspects of preclinical and early-stage clinical development, Paolo will be an important addition to the organization. We look forward to welcoming him to the team and benefiting from his insights.”
“As more than 50% of all GPCR targets in the body have not yet been drugged successfully, Confo’s unrivaled ability to effectively stabilize the target GPCR in a natural signaling conformation enables the Company to discover unique therapeutic candidates. It also represents an exciting opportunity to develop new and impactful medicines,” commented Dr. Vicini. “I am excited to join this dynamic team at this important juncture in Confo’s trajectory and contribute to the Company’s mission of developing transformative therapeutic outcomes for patients suffering from severe diseases.”
Over the last 20 years, Dr. Vicini has worked as an expert in pharmacology and drug development in the international biopharmaceutical industry and academia. Most recently, he held the position of Vice President, Development Sciences at Kymab Ltd. in Cambridge, U.K., where he was responsible for preclinical and clinical development including toxicology and safety evaluation, preclinical and clinical bioanalysis, translational and clinical pharmacology and aspects of biomarker development. Prior to that, Dr. Vicini worked at MedImmune as Senior Director of Translational Sciences, Clinical Pharmacology, Pharmacometrics and Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics at their Cambridge, U.K. site. In this position he was responsible for establishing the strategy, direction and objectives at the research site and was accountable for all clinical pharmacology and DMPK aspects of discovery, preclinical and clinical stages of development. Before that, Dr. Vicini was a Research Fellow, Biotherapeutics and Translational Research, with Pharmacokinetics, Dynamics and Metabolism at Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development in California for seven years. Prior to that, he was a faculty member with the Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
Dr. Vicini obtained his PhD in Bioengineering from the Polytechnic of Milan and the University of Padova, Italy and finished his MBA in 2014 from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He has received multiple honors, is a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists and a member of several professional organizations. He has over 140 publications in diverse areas including oncology-targeted agents, diabetes, immunotherapy and immunogenicity of biotherapeutics, dose optimization as well as pharmacometrics and systems pharmacology.
About Confo Therapeutics
Confo Therapeutics’ unparalleled technology stabilizes functional conformations of GPCRs (G protein-coupled receptors) to uncover a wide range of previously inaccessible drug targets. This platform combined with the pharmacologic and biologic insight it provides, allows Confo to build a multi-indication pipeline of drug candidates with the vision of transforming therapeutic outcomes for patients with severe illnesses lacking disease-modifying treatments. Confo Therapeutics was spun out of Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie (VIB) in 2015. Supported by international life-science focused investors and led by an experienced team of entrepreneurial professionals and scientists from successful biopharmaceutical companies, Confo Therapeutics benefits from the rich scientific and innovative ecosystem in Belgium.
For more information, visit www.confotherapeutics.com
