Chairman of the Board
Mr. Di Nepi has accumulated nearly 40 years of global experience in the Healthcare sector. His career started with 16 years at McKinsey & Company, where he was a Partner and Core Leadership member of the Global Pharmaceutical Practice, followed by 11 years at Novartis where he held a number of executive roles, including CEO of Novartis Italy and Global Head of the Infectious Diseases, Transplantation and Immunology Global Business Unit and member of the Global Pharma Executive Committee. He subsequently served as CEO of Takeda Europe starting in 2006. In 2009, he started and substantially grew the European operations of InterMune, and launched the blockbuster rare disease product Esbriet ® (pirfenidone), until InterMune purchase for USD 8.3bn and integration with Roche in 2015. Then, in 2016, Mr. Di Nepi became CEO of Polyphor in Switzerland and led the company bringing two products to Phase III and successfully raising over CHF 200m – including a CHF 155m IPO, which was the largest primary biotech IPO in Switzerland in the previous 10 years. He was recently appointed as Senior Advisor for Health Care Private Equity in Europe by KKR and is a Non-Executive Director at Geneuro, NTC and Zambon. He is also an advisor to Handicap International.
He joined Peptomyc as Chairman of the Board in January 2021.
CEO
Dr. Soucek is a leading figure in the Myc field and has pioneered studies on MYC inhibition since designing Omomyc when she was still an undergraduate student. Dr. Laura Soucek has published in top scientific journals including Nature, Nature Medicine, Genes & Development, and Nature Communications as First and Senior author. Since early 2011, she heads the Mouse Models of Cancer Therapies Group at the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Barcelona, Spain. Her research at VHIO has already been recognized through several national research awards and grants (FERO fellowship, grants from the Miguel Servet Program, FIS and AGAUR), and prestigious international grants such as an ERC Consolidator grant, two ERC Proof of Concept grants and an AICR (now Worldwide Cancer Research) grant. Laura is also co-inventor of five patent applications including the ones at the basis of this project. In December 2014, she co-founded Peptomyc S.L. As CEO of the company, she is directing the scientific and strategic aspects of the project, overseeing its overall implementation, progress, and success.
CSO
Dr. Beaulieu initially joined Dr. Soucek’s academic Mouse Models of Cancer therapies research group at VHIO in 2013 after having worked with the pharmaceutical industry to study therapeutic peptide formulations using biophysical methods. At VHIO, Marie-Eve established the Protein Purification Platform and demonstrated for the first time the cell penetrating potential of Omomyc, which rapidly led to a first patent application, and to the creation of Peptomyc one year later.
Marie-Eve already co-authored 21 peer-reviewed publications and 4 book chapters. During her academic track, she awarded several competitive fellowships (CREFSIP scholarship, MITACS Accelerated postdoctoral fellowship (postdoc project at Theratechnologies Inc., Montreal, Canada) and a FRSQ postdoctoral award from the Quebec government (postdoc project at VHIO).
She is co-inventor of 4 patent applications protecting the use of Omomyc in medicine and composition of matter variants. As co-founder of Peptomyc S.L., Marie-Eve has actively contributed to establish the business project of the company and to raise 5.2M Euros in private equity and 4.7M Euros in public funding grants. As CSO of Peptomyc, she coordinates the various scientific activities related to the Omomyc peptide development (CMC, assays development, preclinical validation in vitro and in vivo, and pipeline expansion) performed in-house and outsourced to CROs.
Board Member
Montserrat Vendrell is founding partner of Aliath Bioventures SL and a partner at Alta Life Sciences SL.
Montserrat Vendrell Rius (Barcelona, 1964) is a partner at Alta Life Sciences, a venture capital firm that invests in life science companies. She’s member of the Board of Peptomyc and Accure (Chair). She has previously been CEO of Biocat, the Barcelona Science Park and the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST).
She holds a PhD in Biology from the UB (1991) and completed a postdoctoral stay at the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology (Hoffmann La Roche, NJ, USA, 1992-1994) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC, 1995-1997). She also holds a master’s degree in Scientific Communication from the Barcelona School of Management-UPF (1997), an executive management degree from IESE (PDG-2007) and Promociona Degree for Female Executives from ESADE (2015).
Vendrell currently chairs the Executive Committee of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation and the Board of Trustees of UPF (Pompeu Fabra University) and is member of the Board of Catalonia Bio and HealthTech.
Board Member
Degree and PhD in Medicine (UB) and specialist in Neurosurgery and Global Executive MBA (IESE).
Founding Partner of two Venture Capital funds (Healthequity and Invivo Capital) focused in early-stage investments in the healthcare sector, where he has led the investment strategy and transaction processes. He serves or has served at the Board of Directors of many life-sciences companies including Sanifit, Minoryx, Versantis, n-Life Therapeutics, Peptomyc, Arthex, Pulmobiotics, Gyala, Telum, One Chain Therapeutics and Telomere Therapeutics. Deeply involved in the innovation ecosystem, he is a member and advisor of many healthcare innovation organizations, and author of numerous books in the field of innovation, venture capital and healthcare. In the academic space, he teaches at several business schools about healthcare innovation and venture capital.
Board Member
Edoardo has cumulated 20 years of experience in Life Science, with particular focus on biopharma, consulting and CRO services and medical devices. His career started as an engineer in industry and shifted to Life Science in Air Liquide, and later in Stallergenes, two French companies respectively leaders in medicinal gases and allergen immunotherapy. During the last 10 years, Edoardo was engaged in consulting and CRO services and has started an entrepreneurial activity that has developed, along with other partners into the creation of AurorA Science, an investment company supported by Rottapharm Biotech and Italfarmaco, two midsize pharma players with global reputation. During his career, Edoardo has covered different management positions in various European countries from operations management, strategy and business development. Edoardo is also an angel investor in different biotech companies.
Board Member
Mr. Vengohechea has more than 10-year experience in the Healthcare industry. He started his career in R&D at Grifols; then he spent 6 years at Antares Consulting, a boutique consulting firm specialized in biotech start-ups, market access and hospital management. In recent years he has been in charge of Corporate Business Development at Palex Medical, where his duties include M&A and commercial alliances (licensing-in). Mr. Vengohechea has founded and led several organizations including a Symphonic Orchestra and an education company. He is a Biotechnologist by training and he holds an MBA from IESE. He has been supporting Peptomyc since 2015 and he joined its board of directors in 2020 on behalf of a group of Business Angels.