Beactica Therapeutics appoints several high-profile people to strengthen its strategic focus on drug discovery

Beactica Therapeutics, the Swedish drug discovery company, today announced the appointment of a Head of Preclinical Development, two new members of the Board, and a clinical advisor. The appointments are made to strengthen the organisation as the company sharpens its strategic focus on drug discovery and development. 

Vendela Parrow, PhD is appointed to Head of Preclinical Development. She brings with her an extensive experience in preclinical and clinical development from key positions at Akinion Pharmaceuticals, Axelar and Pharmacia Biovitrum. Vendela was a Co-founder, CSO and CEO of Akinion with responsibility for the interactions with competent authorities, independent review boards and clinics in several European countries. She is Head of Facility of In Vitro and Systems Pharmacology Facility at SciLifeLab Drug Discovery and Development Platform. Vendela received her PhD in Medical Sciences, tumour biology, from Uppsala University where she also passed her exam in Clinical Drug Development. “Having followed Beactica’s innovative LSD1 programme closely for several years I am now very excited to take on this role with the company,” Vendela Parrow says. “I believe that we can accomplish great things together.”

Joining the Beactica Board of Directors are Maarten de Château and Håkan Wickholm. Johan Harmenberg joins the company as Clinical Advisor. “We are delighted to make these excellent additions to the organisation,” said Dr Per Källblad, CEO of Beactica. “Their extensive experiences will be valuable as we advance our pipeline of novel small molecule therapeutics.”

Maarten de Château is currently CEO of Sixera Pharma and Buzzard Pharmaceuticals. He serves as chairman of the Board of Atrogi, and on the Boards of Cavis Technologies and Gesynta Pharma. Maarten was Co-founder and CEO of Cormorant Pharmaceuticals – a company that developed a therapeutic antibody approach in immuno-oncology that was acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2016. Prior to that, Maarten held the position of Medical Director at Swedish Orphan Biovitrum; he has also worked in clinical development at Sanofi and as an investment bank financial analyst for five years. Maarten holds a PhD and an MD from the University of Lund, Sweden.

Håkan Wickholm has 30 years of experience in international strategy formulation, business development and commercialisation. Besides his engagement in Beactica he serves on the board of Genovis. Håkan has held senior positions in international pharmaceutical and biotech companies, including CBO and CEO of Lytix Biopharma and various management positions in AstraZeneca. Håkan has a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Management from Warwick Business School and a B.Sc. in Business Administration and Economics - International Business from Uppsala University.

Johan Harmenberg is Chief Medical Officer at Oncopeptides AB. He has previously held roles at a number of life science companies including as CEO for Axelar AB and Akinion AB, Chief Medical Officer at Algeta AB, Vice President Development for Medivir AB and Global Medical Director for Pharmacia Upjohn. He is the author of over 100 publications for a range of scientific journals. Johan holds a PhD and MD from the Karolinska Institutet (KI) and he is also Associate Professor (Docent) in Virology at KI.

About Beactica Therapeutics

Beactica Therapeutics AB is a specialist drug discovery company, utilising its proprietary methodologies to evaluate the interactions of molecules in order to generate novel therapeutics. As well as advancing a pipeline of first-in-class small molecule allosteric modulators of disease-associated proteins, with a focus in oncology, Beactica offers partnerships for fragment-based lead generation using its proprietary discovery platform. Founded in 2006 based on research carried out at Uppsala University, Beactica has established a reputation as a world-leader in fragment-based drug discovery using SPR biosensor technology. For more information on Beactica, please visit www.beactica.com.

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