LONDON: Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals plc (LSE: HEMO), the biopharmaceutical group developing new therapies and treatments for blood diseases, announces the appointment of Dr Koen van Besien as Medical Director.
Dr van Besien is Chief of the Division of Hematology and head of the Wesley Center for Immunotherapy at University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center, a cellular therapy facility that generates CAR-T and CAR-NK among other cell therapies. He has been associated with the Company as a scientific adviser from its founding and, now that the Company is moving close to clinical trials, we are delighted that he is able to step up to a position where he will be actively engaged in refining the protocol for the trials and its implementation.
Dr van Besien is Editor in Chief of the Journal of Leukemia and Lymphoma and a member of the editorial boards of several journals including Bone Marrow Transplantation and Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. He has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers.
Most recently, Dr van Besien was Director of the Stem Cell Transplant Program at New York Presbyterian Hospital and a professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College.
Dr van Besien graduated from Medical School at the University of Leuven, Belgium and holds a PhD from Maastricht University in the Netherlands. He completed his hematology/oncology fellowship at Indiana University and in Bruges, Belgium. Dr van Besien has served on the faculty of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He also directed transplant programs at the University of Illinois for four years and at the University of Chicago for a decade.
Dr Vladislav Sandler, CEO & Co-Founder of Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals, commented: “We are excited to welcome Dr Koen van Besien as Medical Director. Koen’s rich experience and deep insight into the cutting-edge treatments of patients suffering from blood cancers will undoubtedly help to accelerate Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals’ product candidates, and specifically in the short term the transition into the clinic of HEMO-CAR-T, our lead product candidate.”
Dr Koen Van Besien, Medical Director of Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals, commented: “I have been privileged to work with Hemogenyx since its founding. It is great to see their research efforts come to fruition and I am committed to helping bring their first product to the clinic.”