About Us
Emergence Therapeutics is a European biopharmaceutical company developing novel antibody drug conjugate (ADC) therapeutics to treat high need cancers. Our lead program features innovative antibody design as well as state of the art linker and payload technology to target Nectin-4 – an important and validated target for a broad range of cancers. This approach brings the promise of superiority to enfortumab vedotin, a high-profile ADC for urothelial cancer.
We are also developing a broader pipeline of additional first- or best-in-class ADCs driven by therapeutic need.
Emergence is led by a strong management team supported by a network of world-leading experts and leading international investors.
Management
Team
Dr. Jack Elands
Chief Executive OfficerDr. Jack Elands is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Emergence Therapeutics and a member of the Executive Board. He is also the founder of Talix Therapeutics and Chief Executive Officer of BliNK Biomedical. Previously, he served as co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Amakem Therapeutics where, under his leadership, Amakem developed a new class of glaucoma drug and managed the development up until phase 2b trials, after which the program was out-licensed to a Korean group. Dr. Elands was previously Chief Executive Officer of Vitec, Chief Business Officer of Silicos and VP of Business Development at Sidec AB. He started his pharmaceutical career at Marion Merrell Dow (later HMR and Aventis, now Sanofi). Dr. Elands holds a PhD in Neuropharmacology from the Rudolf Magnus Institute at University of Utrecht (Netherlands) and the CNRS INSERM Center for Pharmacology and Endocrinology in Montpellier (France).
Carsten Dehning
Chief Financial OfficerCarsten Dehning is Chief Financial Officer at Emergence Therapeutics and a member of the Executive Board. Joining the Emergence Therapeutics team at the founding stage, he brings to the company over 20 years’ experience serving as a Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer at a number of healthcare companies including DeveloGen, Aspireo Pharmaceuticals, Albireo, Biovertis and Bourn Hall International. Mr Dehning is regularly advising companies in the healthcare sector as well as healthcare investors. Mr Dehning holds a Diploma in business administration from the University of Göttingen, Germany.
Dr. Xavier Preville
Chief Scientific OfficerDr. Xavier Preville is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Emergence Therapeutics. He previously served as Chief Scientific Officer at Talix Therapeutics and worked for Transgene, where he was responsible for managing the pre-clinical development of various immuno-therapeutics including viral therapeutic vaccines, oncolytic viruses and monoclonal antibodies. Dr. Preville previously worked for BT Pharma (now Genticel), where he successfully led the pre-clinical development and production team. Dr Preville is a cellular immunologist by trade, with more than 15 years industrial experience. He holds a PhD in cellular biology from the Claude Bernard Lyon I University.
Dr. Florence Lhospice
Chief Development OfficerDr. Florence Lhospice is Chief Development Officer of Emergence Therapeutics. She previously served as Senior Director at Innate Pharma, where she led the ADC pre-clinical programs. While at Innate Pharma, Dr. Lhospice was head of chemistry, manufacturing and control processes (CMC) for 5 years, after which she was in charge of the development of an ADC technology for a site specific conjugation. Dr. Lhospice holds a PhD in Pharmacy from the Pharmacy School of University Joseph Fourier in Grenoble and the University of Montreal, a Masters degree from the University Claude Bernard in Lyon and the EM Lyon Business School and obtained a PhD in human pathology-oncology from the Medical School of the University of Aix-Marseille.
Dr. Hatem Azim
Chief Medical OfficerDr. Hatem Azim is Chief Medical Officer of Emergence Therpeutics. He previously served as Head of Oncology Early Clinical Development at Pierre Fabre. Prior to this, Dr. Azim held the role of Vice President, Head of Clinical Development at Innate Pharma. Dr. Azim holds a Medical Degree from Cairo University, a Master’s degree in Oncology from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne and a PhD from the Université Libre De Bruxelles. He is a Breast Cancer Medical Oncologist with strong academic background, having worked for many years at Jules Bordet Institute in Brussels after finishing his oncology training. He is highly published with more than 130 research papers and 10 book chapters. Dr. Azim has served as member of several international guideline committees and has been invited as faculty member on numerous occasions including at the annual conferences of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). He was previously awarded the ASCO Merit Award and the University of Padova Breast Cancer Award in recognition of his work in the oncology field.
Supervisory
Board
Peter Neubeck
Chairman of the Supervisory BoardDr. Peter Neubeck is Head of Investment at Kurma Partners in Germany. Previously, he held several leadership positions at Novartis and worked for McKinsey and Company. He is a Medical Doctor and achieved his degree from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich as well as Harvard Medical School and holds an MBA from INSEAD. He has held tenures at Großhadern University Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, and Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital.
Roy Amariglio
Member of the Supervisory BoardRoy joined OrbiMed in 2016 and specializes in biotechnology investments in both private and public companies and is also involved with the formation and investment in early-stage companies. Prior to joining OrbiMed, Roy was a Director of Mergers, Acquisitions and Licensing at Bayer Health Care where he was responsible for Health Care transactions. While at Bayer, Roy held several positions of increasing responsibilities in Oncology Marketing and in Business Development.
Roy received his B.A. in Chemistry and Biology from Tel Aviv University and M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from the Weizmann Institute in Israel and an MBA in Finance and Healthcare Management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Ohad Hammer
Member of the Supervisory BoardOhad is a Partner at Pontifax, where he is focused on scouting and project evaluation. He also serves on the board of several of Pontifax’s portfolio companies including AgomAb, Precirix and Step Pharma. Ohad obtained his MSc in Biology from Tel-Aviv University.
Matthew Hammond
Member of the Supervisory BoardMatthew Hammond is a Principal on the Investment Team at RA Capital Management. Matthew works on both public and private investments and serves as a Board Director for Cerebral Therapeutics, DTx Pharma, Forge Biologics, Jnana Therapeutics, Kira Pharmaceuticals, and Research Alliance Corp II. Matthew holds a BS in Environmental Health Science from the University of Georgia and both a PhD in Biomedical Science and an MBA with a concentration in Finance from the University of Connecticut. His graduate research investigated innate immune responses after intracerebral hemorrhage.
Aristotelis Nastos
Member of the Supervisory BoardAristotelis Nastos is team leader life science / venture capital at NRW.BANK and also manages the life science invesstments at Gründerfonds Ruhr. He has more than 20 years of experience as a venture capitalist. Before rejoining NRW.BANK in 2017 he was Partner with Creathor Ventures. Previously, he had already worked for NRW.BANK for almost 10 years, where he established the venture capital activities and in particular the current life science and cleantech portfolio of the bank. In the course of his management activities, he has been appointed to a numerous advisory and supervisory boards within the industry and was responsible for several M&A- (Direvo, Rigontec and Neo) and asset deal transactions (i.e. CellAct, DIREVO IBT).
Having a phD in biological sciences he has obtained a sound scientific and technical background as well and he was a research director at the German Diabetes Research Institute (Düsseldorf) and an International Research Fellow of the Welcome Trust (UK) while he has been a PostDoc at the King’s College in London.
Olivier Martinez
ObserverDr. Olivier Martinez is a Senior Investment Director at Bpifrance and is responsible for investments into biotech companies. Previously he served as Investment Manager and member of the executive board at Bioam Fund, dedicated to early-stage life science investments. Prior to this he worked for the Life Science Group at Gemini Consulting (Cap Gemini). In 2000 he joined the Bioam Fund dedicated to early-stage life science investments as an Associate. He is an alumnus of the Ecole Normale Supérieure, holds a PhD in cell biology from the University of Paris-Saclay and an MBA from the Collège des Ingénieurs.
Anke Cassing
ObserverAnke Cassing is Investment Manager at High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF). She has many years of experience in strategic marketing and business development in medical technology, biotechnology and in pharmaceuticals. In her role at HTGF, Dr. Cassing is responsible for several early stage investments in biotech and medical technology. Before becoming an investment manager, Dr. Cassing developed the product portfolios of international life science companies ensuring their future growth. She holds a doctorate in biology and economics.
Roger Franklin
ObserverRoger has wide ranging experience in the business of life science spanning over a decade across the strategy consulting, investment banking and venture capital industries. Prior to his business career, Roger completed his academic training in biochemistry at Oxford University before specialising in oncology during his doctoral work at Cambridge’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB).
At Hadean, Roger is a Partner based in the Stockholm office and is particularly focused on investments in the therapeutics space. Besides Emergence, Roger also sits on the board, as director or observer, at Pipeline Therapeutics Inc, Step Pharma SAS, Abliva AB, Gesynta Pharma AB and Cardior Pharmaceuticals GmbH.
Thierry Laugel
ObserverDr. Thierry Laugel is co-founder of Kurma Partners. He has over 25 years’ experience in the life sciences, inclyding Venture Capitalism and has led investments in more than 25 companies including Actelion, Arpida, Targacept, Adocia, or Erytech. He is currently a Board Member of Horama, Minoryx, Blink Biomedical, Talix Therapeutics, Meiogenix, Pathoquest and Asarina Pharma. He previously worked at Caisse des Dépots (CDC) and AGF Private Equity (Allianz Group), where he supervised the healthcare investment team. Dr. Laugel worked at Flamel Technologies where he managed the development-stage of the company and as an R&D Manager for Les Laoratoires Fouriner in Tokyo. Dr. Thierry Laugel is a pharmacist, holds a PhD in pharmacology and holds an INSTEAD MBA.
Scientific
Advisory Board
Xavier Preville
ChairmanDr. Xavier Preville is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Emergence Therapeutics. He previously served as Chief Scientific Officer at Talix Therapeutics and worked for Transgene, where he was responsible for managing the pre-clinical development of various immuno-therapeutics including viral therapeutic vaccines, oncolytic viruses and monoclonal antibodies. Dr. Preville previously worked for BT Pharma (now Genticel), where he successfully led the pre-clinical development and production team. Dr Preville is a cellular immunologist by trade, with more than 15 years industrial experience. He holds a PhD in cellular biology from the Claude Bernard Lyon I University.
Rakesh Dixit
AdvisorDr. Rakesh Dixit is President and Chief Executive Officer of Bionavigen. He is an inventor and scientist with over 30 years of success with top biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, including Merck, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca (Medimmune). Previously he served as Global Vice President of the Biologics R&D at AstraZeneca (Medimmune). Dr. Dixit has published 80 peer-reviewed papers in renowned international journals and has special expertise in the development of biologics in general and antibody drug conjugates in particular. He was selected by his biopharmaceutical peers as on of the 100 Most Inspiring People in Pharmaceutical Industry in PharmaVOICE in 2015.
Robert Lutz
AdvisorIndependent ADC consultant, previously VP R&D Immunogen
John Lambert
AdvisorIndependent ADC consultant and EVP and CSO of Immunogen
François Romagné
Advisor & CollaboratorScientific Director of MI-mAbs, Professor of Immunotechnologies at Aix-Marseille Université and Cofounder and former CSO of Innate Pharma
Marc Lopez
Advisor & CollaboratorMarc Lopez is an Inserm research engineer at the Cancer Research Center of Marseille (CRCM – UMR 1068)
Daniel Olive
Advisor & CollaboratorProfessor of Immunology at the Aix-Marseille Université and in charge of the Immunity and Cancer Research Team at the Cancer Research Center of Marseille (CRCM – UMR 1068)