Biotech Entrepreneur Veronica Gambillara Fonck Appointed Chair of MinervaX
COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Nov. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- MinervaX ApS, a privately held Danish biotechnology company developing a novel, prophylactic vaccine against Group B Streptococcus (GBS), today announced the appointment of Veronica Gambillara Fonck as its new Chair of the Board of Directors. Gerd Zettlmeissl, the previous Chair, who was instrumental in the transition of MinervaX from a preclinical-stage company to a well-funded clinical-stage company, has stepped down from his role for personal reasons but will continue to support MinervaX as a senior advisor.
Veronica has been a board member of MinervaX since 2022, following an investment by Pureos Bioventures, where she has served as a Partner since 2022. She has over 18 years of experience across the pharma and biotech industry in various operational roles in vaccine development and has been instrumental in building and growing companies. Veronica was the Co-Founder and CEO of LimmaTech Biologics, a company developing vaccines to prevent life-threatening diseases caused by pathogens resistant to antimicrobial treatments, and GlycoEra AG, a biotech company developing medicines for a variety of diseases using its CustomGlycan platform.
Per Fischer, Chief Executive Officer of MinervaX, said: "Veronica has been a key member of our board since October 2022 and her extensive vaccine development experience has been invaluable in the progress of our novel, prophylactic vaccine candidate against GBS. Veronica in her new role as Chair will oversee the next important phase of company development as we prepare for Phase III studies with our maternal GBS vaccine. I would like to thank Gerd for his valuable contributions to the success of MinervaX over the past four years, and we are pleased that we will continue to benefit from his vast experience in his new advisory role."
Veronica Gambillara, new Chair of the Board of Directors of MinervaX, commented: "I am thrilled to be taking on this role at such a pivotal stage of development for MinervaX as we advance towards Phase III studies with our GBS vaccine in pregnant people and advance our Phase I studies in older adults. GBS remains a significant unmet medical need, and I look forward to working closely with the board and management team to achieve the full potential of our GBS vaccine to prevent these life-threatening infections."
Veronica began her career focusing on clinical R&D and international regulation within the MedTech field.
In 2009, she moved to GlycoVaxyn, a specialist vaccine biopharmaceutical company where she held roles in clinical, regulatory, and business development. Veronica was a core member of the GlycoVaxyn team responsible for building and contributing to the success of the company in preparation for its acquisition by GSK in 2015 for $190 million. She is also a board member at Memo Therapeutics.
The new Chair appointment follows the recently announced manufacturing agreement with Wacker Biotech in September as MinervaX begins establishing commercial manufacturing for its GBS vaccine candidate. GBS is a major global cause of maternal and infant ill health with no approved vaccine available to prevent the rising early and late onset of GBS. The rising number of GBS cases reported globally each year has reached 410,000 with approximately 147,000 stillbirths and infant deaths reported each year, demonstrating the urgent need for an approved GBS vaccine.
Notes to Editors:
About MinervaXMinervaX is a Danish biotechnology company, established in 2010 to develop a prophylactic vaccine against Group B Streptococcus (GBS), based on research from Lund University. MinervaX is developing a GBS vaccine for maternal immunization, and also for vaccination of older/at risk adults. Phase II clinical data from its maternal vaccination program suggest a high efficacy, based on the preliminary Correlate of Protection data from a natural history study. MinervaX's GBS vaccine is a protein-only vaccine based on fusions of highly immunogenic and protective protein domains from selected surface proteins of GBS, the Alpha-like protein family (AIpN). Given the broad distribution of proteins contained in the vaccine on GBS strains globally, it is expected that MinervaX's GBS vaccine will confer protection against virtually 100% of all GBS isolates.
Details of MinervaX's completed Phase II clinical trials in pregnant people can be found at https://clinicaltrials.gov/ under the identifiers NCT04596878 and NCT05154578. In addition to pregnant people, MinervaX is also pursuing Phase I development of its novel GBS vaccine in older adults, under identifier NCT05782179. www.minervax.com
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