Basel, Switzerland - February 20, 2017, Basel, Switzerland - Therachon, a biotechnology company, announced the strengthening of its board of directors and executive management team.
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Hans Schikan will the join the Board as a non-executive director.
Mr. 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, Mr. Schikan was the CEO of Prosensa, which used RNA modulation to treat rare diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).
Prior to that, he held senior strategic and commercial positions at Genzyme and Organon.
Mr. Schikan received his Pharm.D. from the University of Utrecht (Netherlands).
Richard Porter is announced as the Chief Operating Officer.
Mr. Porter brings over 20 years of experience working across multiple therapeutic areas in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.
Mr. Porter 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.
Mr. Porter 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 has been appointed as Vice President of Biology.
Mr. 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.
Mr. Stavenhagen 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.
Mr. Stavenhagen started his career as an assistant professor at the University of Dayton in the Department of Biology. ■