Confo Therapeutics appoints Dr. Cedric Ververken as Chief Executive Officer
Confo Therapeutics appoints Dr. Cedric Ververken as Chief Executive Officer
Brussels, September 7, 2016 [09:00 CET] – Confo Therapeutics, an emerging drug discovery company, announces the appointment of Cedric Ververken as CEO and board member, starting October 1. Dr. Ververken will lead the transition of Confo Therapeutics from a technology company to a drug development company.
Cedric Ververken joins Confo Therapeutics from Ablynx, where he advanced through positions of increasing responsibility, most recently as Vice President Business Development heading the company’s partnering activities around specific products and Nanobody drug discovery collaborations with top tier pharmaceutical companies. He started his career as scientist-project manager heading cross functional R&D teams and advancing internal and partnered R&D programs. Dr. Ververken has a PhD in bioscience engineering from KU Leuven.
Stephane van Rooijen, MD, MBA, who is stepping down as CEO, played a crucial role setting up the company and establishing its operations. He secured the initial funding, initiated a promising portfolio of drug development programs and recruited an outstanding team to move the organization to the next phase. With the appointment of the new CEO the company secures the successful transition of Confo Therapeutics into a drug discovery and development company.
“Using its breakthrough technology to go after currently undruggable GPCRs Confo Therapeutics is building a unique portfolio of first-in-class compounds addressing various unmet medical needs,“ says Dr. Ververken. “I very much look forward to working with the world-class team at Confo to further expand the company’s operations and support its continued growth.”
“Being able to establish and build Confo Therapeutics has been an extraordinary experience so far. I’m glad now to hand over to Cedric, who brings over 10 years of biotech leadership experience to Confo,” explains former CEO Stephane van Rooijen. “His expertise in drug discovery as well as in business development complements Confo’s ambition to further expand the drug development programs”.
About Confo Therapeutics
Confo Therapeutics was founded in 2015 as VIB-VUB spin-off with support of Capricorn Venture Partners, MINTS, PMV, QBIC, SOFI, V-Bio Ventures and VIB. Confo Therapeutics is a drug discovery company building a portfolio of first-in-class programs on pathway selective drugs. Driven by its proprietary CONFO® technology, the company empowers the discovery of novel agonists for superior therapeutic intervention in a wide range of diseases.
G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are attractive drug targets in the treatment of many different conditions, playing an essential part in many life processes and influencing diseases. GPCRs are flexible on-off switches located in the cell membrane and pass signals from outside into the cell through conformational changes.
CONFO®‘s technology reveals new druggable pockets stabilizing the medically relevant active signaling state of the receptor, using Confobodies (camelid single domain antibodies). The Confobody stabilized signaling state of the GPCR makes the target accessible for drug screening and discovery. CONFO® technology is adding value in the drug discovery value chain beyond high throughput screening, including structure-based screening.
Confo Therapeutics is committed to the development of new medicines to treat diseases with high unmet need.
Contact:
Stephane van Rooijen
info@confotherapeutics.com
More info at: www.confotherapeutics.com
