New appointments at life sciences startups

Versantis AG, a clinical-stage company developing novel therapies for orphan liver diseases, appointed seasoned pharmaceutical executive Christopher Seaton to its Board of Directors. Seaton has extensive business development expertise, with more than 25 years of experience in closing transactions of all types, including M&A, licensing, collaborations and partnerships. He spent 23 years working at Bayer AG, primarily in the USA and in multiple strategic licensing and transactional roles, culminating in being appointed as Senior Vice President, Negotiations, Bayer HealthCare. In this role, he was responsible for major transactions worldwide for Bayer Schering Pharmaceuticals, Bayer HealthCare and Bayer Pharmaceuticals. During his time at Bayer, he played a key role in many transactions, including the $2.9 billion deal with Genzyme on alemtuzumab and other cancer products; Bayer’s $15 billion consumer care acquisition from Merck & Co; spin-out of ACT Biotech from Bayer Oncology; and the in-licensing of VEGF Trap from Regeneron. Before Bayer, He also has varied hospital and healthcare board position experience.

Keto-swiss: Alexandra Carrel & David Meinhart
Based in Basel, KetoSwiss is developing “brain fuels” as nutraceuticals/supplements and pharmaceuticals for the therapy of migraines (“MigraKet”). The company has welcomed Alexandra Carrel and David Meinhart to its BOD. Carrel brings over 20 years of expertise in intellectual property and business law. Meinhard brings extensive experience as Chief Executive and startup Mentor, particularly in product development and investment to Novigenix. 

Monte Rosa Therapeutics: Christine Siu
Monte Rosa is a biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing precision medicines that degrade disease-causing proteins. Among the recent appointments, the startup has added Christine Siu as a member of the board. Siu is the Chief Operating Officer in Residence of BridgeBio and formerly served as the Chief Financial Officer of Eidos Therapeutics, a BridgeBio company. Before that, Siu served as the Chief Business Officer of the Bluefield Project to Cure Frontotemporal Dementia and was a Venture Principal at Third Rock Ventures, where she helped start Global Blood Therapeutics (GBT) and was the first employee. 

Novigenix: Valentin Matillon as President & CBO
Novigenix expanded its senior leadership team with Valentin Matillon as President and Chief Business Officer, reporting to the Board of Directors. Matillon brings decades of experience in scaling unique business models, most recently as a Chief Financial Officer at Sophia Genetics. He previously served at the Hobart Group as Senior Director of Finance after his role as Senior Director, Corporate Finance and Performance Management, at SITA. Earlier in his career, he held finance & operations roles at Electronic Arts and Hewlett-Packard.  As part of his mandate at Novigenix, he will lead commercial partnerships and scale up the Novigenix LITOseek platform that delivers unique ImmunoTranscriptomic precision solutions to the pharma and biotech industries.