Board of Directors

Philippe has 20 years of experience in the life science industry, including pharma, biotech and med-tech companies. Most recently, he was Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors of GlycoVaxyn for seven years. GlycoVaxyn was acquired by GSK in February 2015. From 2004-2007 he was chairman and chief executive officer of EndoArt SA, a med-tech company developing telemetric driven implants for cardiac diseases and obesity. Endoart was sold to Allergan, Inc. From 1999 to 2003, Dr. Dro was chief operating officer and part of the founding team of Axovan AG a GPCR-focused drug discovery company, where he helped to grow the company to become a clinical-stage entity, which was ultimately acquired by Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Prior to this, he held the position of chief operating officer and he was also a member of the board of directors of Antares Pharma, a drug delivery company formed by the merger of Permatec Group and Mediject. He also held executive director positions at SkyePharma PLC during its listing on the LSE and in finance at Sandoz Pharma AG (now Novartis AG). Philippe holds a PharmD from University of Grenoble (France) and an MBA jointly from Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Lyon (France) and Cranfield School of Management (UK).

Veronica is a biotech entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience in building and growing biotech companies developing new drugs against several diseases. Most recently, she was CEO and member of the Board of Directors of GlycoEra, a late 2020 spin-off of LimmaTech that is developing novel drugs based on a glycoengineering platform. She successfully financed the company with a large Series A round in November 2021. Previously, from 2015 to 2020, Veronica led LimmaTech as CEO and has been a member of the Board of Directors ever since. LimmaTech is a spin-off of GlycoVaxyn, the company acquired by GlaxoSmithKline plc in February 2015. Veronica joined GlycoVaxyn in 2009, and during the 6 years at the firm, she held different positions, from leading the clinical and regulatory department to taking care of the business development of the company. Before joining GlycoVaxyn, she held leading roles focused on clinical R&D and international regulatory affairs in medical technology and biotechnology companies, including EndoArt SA and Allergan Inc. Veronica holds an engineering degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich (ETH Zurich) and a PhD in life sciences in the field of cardiovascular biomedical engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL).

Giovanni works as an independent consultant and advisor to companies active in life sciences and is an expert in clinical R&D for vaccines, therapeutics and devices with over 30 years’ experience in the field. Giovanni graduated in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Naples, Italy. In 1990, he joined Ciba-Geigy, one of Novartis’ predecessor companies, and with Novartis, he held positions of increasing responsibility in Switzerland, the US and the UK. From 1999 to 2005, he was the Global Clinical Head of the Respiratory, Dermatology and Infectious Diseases Therapeutic Area in Global Development, Novartis Pharma. In the same Division, from 2005 to 2007, he headed the Department of Methodology and Innovation. He joined Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics in 2008. At the time of the acquisition of the Novartis Vaccines Division by GSK in 2015, he was the Head of Central Clinical Development. In 2015, he was appointed Head of the Siena Research & Development Centre, one of the three GSK global centers specializing in vaccine R&D and held this position until he became an independent consultant in September 2017. Over the years, Giovanni has led the development and regulatory approval of various products including formoterol, a long acting beta2-agonist in asthma and COPD (Foradil), omalizumab, the first anti-IgE monoclonal antibody in allergic asthma (Xolair), seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccines, vaccines against meningitis caused by meningococci A, C, W & Y (Menveo) and B (Bexsero).

Michael has fifteen years’ experience in life science industry, including biotech. Most recently, he was Chief Scientific Officer and member of the Board of Directors of GlycoVaxyn, a company that he co-founded in 2004 and was acquired by GSK in February 2015. He holds a M.Sc. in biochemistry from the ETHZ and completed his Ph.D. and post-doctoral fellowship in microbiology at ETHZ. During this time he was an inventor of the GlycoVaxyn technology. He is the author of several publications in international scientific journals, including Science and PNAS, as well as inventor on various patent applications.

Ennio De Gregorio is the head of Research and Development Center (RDC), GSK Vaccines, Italy. In his current role he is responsible for the discovery and the development of several vaccines targeting bacterial infections (for example bacterial meningitis, COPD exacerbation and infections caused by antimicrobial resistant pathogens) and of novel vaccine platforms enabling next generation antibacterial vaccines such as genetically modified outer membrane vesicles and new approaches to glycoconjugation (bioconjugation and synthetic glycoconjugates). Since 2003, he has been involved in adjuvant discovery and immunological characterization of GSK vaccine candidates, first as project leader and then as head of the Immunology function and head of Research in Italy. He has published several manuscripts and book chapters on vaccine discovery and development with a special focus on vaccine adjuvants and novel breakthrough vaccine technologies. Between 2000 and 2003, Ennio worked on the innate immune response as a post-doctoral fellow of the Human Frontier Science Program at the CNRS, Gif-sur-Yvette, France. During this time, he applied DNA microarray and genetic tools to study host defense in Drosophila. Ennio performed his PhD work in 1996-2000 at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Gene Expression Program in Heidelberg, Germany. During this time, he studied control mechanisms of mRNA translation in eukaryotic cells. In 1994, Ennio received the degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Rome, Italy.