GeneQuine Appoints Big Pharma Veteran Bernhard J. Kirschbaum to its Advisory Board

GeneQuine Biotherapeutics GmbH announces the appointment of Bernhard J. Kirschbaum, PhD to its advisory board. Dr. Kirschbaum, who will also be the chairman of GeneQuine’s advisory board, is a board member of several biotech companies. He has 20 years of experience in R&D of global international pharma companies at Hoechst Marion Roussel, Aventis, Sanofi-Aventis, and Merck Serono, and was in his last position Executive Vice President, Global Research & Early Development and member of the board at Merck Serono.

At Merck Serono, Dr. Kirschbaum was instrumental in building the R&D portfolio up to proof-of-concept in humans with more than 70 programs including avelumab (Bavencio®). He has worked with different technologies (from small molecules to biologics) in a broad range of disease areas including rheumatology/immunology, thrombosis, cardiometabolic diseases, oncology, neurology and rare diseases. His experience also covers several osteoarthritis programs including MMP inhibitors, an ICE inhibitor, a locally administered Bradykinin B2 receptor antagonist and FGF-18. Dr. Kirschbaum is also member of the board of Amarna Therapeutics, a company developing SV40-based gene therapy for gene replacement and tolerance induction.

“We are very happy that Bernhard is joining our board as chairman. Given his vast experience in drug development in big pharma and as board member of biotech companies, we are convinced that his guidance will be extremely valuable for the transition of our lead product GQ-303 into the clinic and our overall company development” said Kilian Guse, CEO of GeneQuine.