Borean Pharma Appoints Dr. Johanna Holldack as Chief Operating Officer

Appointment reflects Borean Pharma`s progress towards the execution of its business strategy of partnering and licensing

10-Oct-2003

Borean Pharma today announced the appointment of Johanna Holldack, M.D., as Chief Operating Officer. With more than 13 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, Dr. Holldack has been responsible for the development and approval of products both in the U.S. and Europe. In the newly created position of COO, Dr. Holldack will be responsible for the development of Borean Pharma`s pipeline, which consists of next generation anti-inflammatory products of TNF-alpha binders for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and products for cardiovascular and infectious diseases. Her field of responsibility also includes business development and daily operations.

"We are especially pleased to welcome Dr. Johanna Holldack to Borean Pharma. With her addition our executive team is now complete and we look forward to executing our business strategy of partnering and licensing our products," said Riku Rautsola, Ph.D., President and CEO of Borean Pharma. "Dr. Holldack`s extensive experience in business development and in bringing pharmaceutical and biotech products to the market, combined with her role in the successful IPO of German biotech company Medigene, will help Borean Pharma achieve its corporate objectives."

Dr. Holldack most recently served as Chief Operating Officer at MediGene AG, Martinsried, Germany. Prior to MediGene, Dr. Holldack was Division Vice President of Chiron Corporation, Emeryville, CA, and responsible for the project management and clinical research of vaccines and therapeutics. Prior to joining Chiron, Dr. Holldack was Head of Clinical Research and Development at German Behringwerke AG.

"I am delighted to join Borean Pharma at this exciting stage of the company`s development. With its unique process of designing recombinant proteins and its strong patent position, Borean Pharma is well positioned to succeed in its goal of filing INDs (Investigational New Drug applications) and moving projects into clinical development within the next few years," said Dr. Johanna Holldack. "The depth of the management team and the scientists, combined with the substantial portfolio of drug candidates in development, has the potential to produce truly groundbreaking treatments."

Dr. Johanna Holldack earned her postdoctoral degree at Georg-August-Universität in Göttingen in Germany and she has published more than 30 papers, abstracts, and reviews in paediatrics and oncology. She has more than 12 years of postdoctoral training from the universities of Freiburg and Essen in Germany and Harvard Medical School of Boston, and was an instructor in Paediatric Immunology at the University of Marburg in Germany.

Other news from the department people

Most read news

More news from our other portals

Fighting cancer: latest developments and advances