Confo Therapeutics to appoint John Berriman as Chairman of the Board
Confo Therapeutics to appoint John Berriman as Chairman of the Board
Brussels, December 15, 2016 [09:00 CET] – Confo Therapeutics, an emerging drug discovery company, today announced the appointment of John Edward Berriman as non-executive director and chairman of the board of directors, starting December 21.
Commenting on the board appointment, Dr. Cedric Ververken, CEO, said: “We are delighted to have attracted someone of John Berriman’s calibre to serve as Chairman of our Company. John has a very impressive track record in founding, financing and growing biotech companies and his appointment is a huge asset to Confo Therapeutics as it further transitions from a technology to a drug discovery company.”
“I am delighted to be joining and chairing the board of Confo Therapeutics, whose technology is, I believe, one of the industry’s most promising platforms for cracking currently undruggable GPCRs, especially when an agonist is required” John Berriman said. “I look forward to working with the board and the management team and contributing to the Company’s continued evolution and growth.”
John Berriman has significant experience in the biotech industry. He is currently Chairman of ReNeuron Group plc, Autifony Therapeutics Ltd. and Depixus SAS; and a non-executive director of Autolus Ltd. He has served as Chairman of Heptares Therapeutics Ltd. (sold to Sosei in February 2015) and Algeta ASA (sold to Bayer AG in 2014) and was a director of Micromet Inc. until its sale to Amgen in 2012. Previously he was a director of Abingworth Management where he was involved in founding, financing and serving as a director of several biotechnology companies in Europe and the USA, many of which obtained listings on public stock exchanges. Prior to that, John spent 14 years with Celltech Group plc and was a member of its Board when it listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1994. He has a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from the London Business School.
About Confo Therapeutics
Confo Therapeutics was co-founded in 2015 by VIB and Capricorn Venture Partners with the support of MINTS, PMV, QBIC, SOFI and V-Bio Ventures. 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 GPCR 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 signaling switches located in the cell membrane and pass outisde signals into the cell through conformational changes. Confo‘s technology stabilizes 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 and reveals new druggable pockets.
Confo Therapeutics is committed to creating new medicines to treat diseases with a high unmet medical need and make a difference to society.
Contact:
Cedric Ververken
info@confotherapeutics.com
More info at: www.confotherapeutics.com
