Santhera Appoints Executive Committee Members as it Transitions into Commercial Stage
Pratteln, Switzerland, December 7, 2023 – Santhera Pharmaceuticals (SIX: SANN) announces the promotion of Geert Jan van Daal, MD, PhD, to Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) and of Marc Schrader to Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Both will join the six-member Executive Committee effective January 1, 2024.
“Santhera is transitioning to the commercial phase and will make AGAMREE® (vamorolone) available to patients in Europe starting in Germany in early 2024, subject to approval by the European Commission. In a staged roll-out across the key European markets, launches will follow in the UK and France later that year, with Spain and Italy scheduled to launch in early 2025,” said Dario Eklund, CEO of Santhera. “With Geert Jan and Marc joining the Executive Committee, we are leveraging the existing expertise within our leadership team and are elevating the commercial and supply chain functions to their level of importance as we enter the commercial market.”
Geert Jan van Daal, MD, PhD, has held various senior strategic marketing and commercial roles during his eight years at Santhera. Notably, he was instrumental in establishing Santhera’s European commercial operations and successfully launching the rare disease product RAXONE® in Europe which was later divested to Chiesi Group. His past roles included Head European Affiliates & EU Market Access, Head Europe Western Region and General Manager France & Benelux, as well as being a member of the management team.
Before joining Santhera, Geert Jan held positions as Medical Director, Business Unit Director and General Manager in start-up teams in Serono, Actelion and InterMune. He successfully launched and marketed products in a wide variety of rare and orphan diseases in neurology, pediatric diseases, endocrinology, pulmonology, cardiology, rheumatology, metabolic disease and neuro-ophthalmology.
Geert Jan completed his medical studies in Rotterdam with a MD degree in 1992 and he also holds a PhD from Erasmus University Rotterdam in The Netherlands.
Marc Schrader joined Santhera Pharmaceuticals as Head of Technical Development & Operations in September 2022 and has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He has extensive expertise in CMC, dealing with complex global pharmaceutical development programs of new chemical entities (small molecules) in early and late clinical stage, clinical and commercial production, product life cycle management, outsourcing and CDMO management, CMC due diligence, CMC regulatory affairs and cGMP.
Prior to joining Santhera, Marc held diverse leadership roles in pharmaceutical development, CMC and drug product operations for small molecules across several organizations including Tillotts Pharma AG, Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd and Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V./Johnson & Johnson.
Marc is a Pharmacist by training and holds a degree in pharmaceutical medicine from the European Center of Pharmaceutical Medicine (ECPM).
The CVs of Santhera's senior executives can be viewed on the Company's website .
About Santhera
Santhera Pharmaceuticals (SIX: SANN) is a Swiss specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative medicines for rare neuromuscular and pulmonary diseases with high unmet medical need. The Company has an exclusive license from ReveraGen for all indications worldwide to AGAMREE® (vamorolone), a dissociative steroid with novel mode of action, which was investigated in a pivotal study in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) as an alternative to standard corticosteroids. AGAMREE for the treatment of DMD is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA); in Europe, the marketing authorization application (MAA) has received a positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency’s CHMP in October 2023, and is under review by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Santhera has out-licensed rights to vamorolone for North America to Catalyst Pharmaceuticals and for China to Sperogenix Therapeutics. The clinical stage pipeline also includes lonodelestat to treat cystic fibrosis (CF) and other neutrophilic pulmonary diseases. For further information, please visit .
AGAMREE® is a trademark of Santhera Pharmaceuticals.
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Disclaimer / Forward-looking statements
This communication does not constitute an offer or invitation to subscribe for or purchase any securities of Santhera Pharmaceuticals Holding AG. This publication may contain certain forward-looking statements concerning the Company and its business. Such statements involve certain risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such statements. Readers should therefore not place undue reliance on these statements, particularly not in connection with any contract or investment decision. The Company disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
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