Pleco Therapeutics’ mission is to demonstrate the market value and therapeutic potential of our proprietary Plecoid™ products through an initial focus on treatments for orphan cancers. Thereafter we can expand our scalable product platform for the treatment of other cancers as well as neurodegenerative disorders where aberrant metal patterns have been shown to play a role.
Our current pre-clinical development programs focus on the development of treatments for Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML), a relatively rare blood cancer, and Small-Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC), an aggressive subtype of lung cancer. Both diseases carry a poor prognosis.
Pleco Therapeutics is led by an experienced management team, with a track record in pharma and biotech, guided by our supportive Board of Directors. Our advisors include the inventor of our foundational patent; an expert in material science and metal analysis, including in cancer; and a cancer expert specializing in the interaction of metals and key proteins in cancer.
MD MBA
Ivo worked for pharmaceutical and biotech companies for thirty years, and was involved in the strategic development of medicines and various product launches. He held senior positions like Global Medical Director of Rhein Biotech, and Chief Medical Officer of Clinigen Group Plc. Ivo was CEO of four start-up companies in the Netherlands and non-executive director of Phico Therapeutics in Cambridge, UK. His specialties include oncology, immunology, viral diseases, and vaccines. Ivo holds a medical degree (MD) from the University in Nijmegen (Netherlands) and a Master of Business Administration degree (MBA) from Henley Management College in Henley-on-Thames, UK.
Rudi has a strong track record of marketing and sales and profit growth running major international companies in the pharmaceutical sector. He has extensive experience in US, European, South American and Asian business cultures. His international pharmaceutical experience covers a period of thirty-five years and includes OTC, generics, unlicensed medicine and patented medicines. Rudi is an experienced fundraiser and is well acquainted with academic and industry collaboration models.
PhD
Dan is a biologist specialized in bioinorganic chemistry of metals and free radicals in biological systems. He holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (Thesis: The role of free radicals and metal ions in adriamycin activity) and an M.Sc. in Human Nutrition from the University of London. He has taught at leading universities in Israel and the US for over fifteen years. In addition to his scientific work, Dan is an experienced management, strategy and business development specialist for biomedical companies, with extensive industry experience including major corporate (Medtronic), venture capital (Concord Ventures) and numerous start-up companies in Israel and Europe. He is an entrepreneur and an inventor, having authored seven patents and patent applications.
LLM
Gerben is a lawyer holding degrees from the Universities of Utrecht (general and business law) and Amsterdam (tax law) and started off his career as company lawyer at AMEV, a life insurance company. He later switched to become Marketing Manager Product Management at the Fortis Retail Bank. After pursuing an international venture, he returned to the Netherlands to work in the pharmaceutical industry. Gerben has been Manager Legal and Regulatory Affairs and Responsible Person for Orly Pharma, an international wholesale company specialised in non-licensed medicines.
Michael comes from STI Pharma where he has been VP Regulatory Affairs & Product Development for the past 13 years. He brings over 25 years’ experience in
pharmaceutical /biotechnology and medical device research, operations, engineering, facility and equipment design, regulatory affairs, quality assurance and marketing gained in the US, India and Europe. Prior to STI Pharma, his experience included roles at Heritage Pharmaceuticals, Artes Medical, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis. During that time, he managed facility upgrades, progressing products from Phase II/III through to commercialization of sterile and non-sterile pharmaceutical products as well as medical devices. He has worked closely with the FDA in putting together IND/NDA/ANDA and PMA submissions and gaining timely approval of a number of pharmaceutical and medical device products in a variety of therapeutic areas. He also has experience in negotiating and managing development contracts for the launch and manufacturing of generic as well as branded products. He received his MS in Chemical Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and his BS from Rutgers University, College of Engineering.
Dr. Henno Welgemoed worked as a primary care physician in the private medical sector for 15 years in South Africa. His special therapeutic interests included diagnostics, immunology, haemato-oncology
and virology.
He was a founding member of a medical diagnostic company that eventually became part of the Equity group for whom he was the principal medical advisor for 5 years. His next role was full time head of medical affairs and business development for the Equity -Link group which worked across the APAC region. With the Clinigen acquisition of the Link group he moved to the UK to further his international experience. Dr. Henno Welgemoed has been the global Director of Medical Affairs and member of the senior leadership of the Clinigen Group for the past 5 years and has had clinical and commercial experience with various originator specialist medicines in different phases of their life cycle.
He has a passion for medical innovation, continuous professional improvement and to make a difference in everything that he does.
Julie has an extensive experience in implementing innovative commercial marketing and distribution strategies to drive market expansion globally. She has gained her skills through the management and launch of pharmaceutical products in various therapeutic areas. Julie holds a Master of Business and Marketing Product Management and is ABPI qualified.
Tamara holds a BSc in pharmacology from Kingston University (London, UK) and a MSc in clinical drug development from the London School of Medicine and Dentistry.
She previously worked for the MHRA as pharmacovigilance officer and has experience in various pharmaceutical companies like AbbVie, Johnson & Johnson, Clinigen Group Plc, Roche and, more recently, Consilient Health.
Her main areas of expertise are regulation and legislation, pharmacovigilance, drug development, patient safety through the product life cycle, medical information, auditing and vendor management.
Arjan holds a Master of Science degree in Business Economics and has embarked on a successful career that began at Fokker Aircraft and KPN Telecom. In these roles, he gained experience in finance and business development. Subsequently, Arjan served as an independent Chief Financial Officer and Business Director for various wholesale businesses, professional services firms, and life science companies. Over the course of his professional journey, he worked closely alongside private equity investors in numerous mergers and acquisitions.
Prior to joining Pleco, Arjan co-founded and spent four years as the Chief Financial Officer and shareholder of a private equity-funded professional services company, following a buy-and-build strategy. During his tenure, the company executed multiple acquisitions and reached the intended scale.
Arjan's enthusiasm for drug development and life science innovations in general, can be traced back to his previous role as the Business Director for neuroscience contract research at Amsterdam University.
In her forty five years of experience in Life Science management, Brenda has held a number of senior positions in major international healthcare companies including Pfizer, G D Searle, Sanofi Winthrop. She is currently a Non-Executive Director of Pleco. University of Birmingham Enterprise Ltd, Oxerna Ltd, and BQR Consulting Ltd. She has historically held several other NED and Chair roles in the Lifescoence sector. Brenda holds a degree in Toxicology and is a Chartered Director and Fellow of the Institute Of Directors. She was, until 2015, founder and Chief Operating Officer of Convergence Pharmaceuticals, raising £20 mill plus. She played a key role in the deal team during its sale to Biogen. Brenda was also founder, director and COO of PowderMed Ltd which was spun out of Chiron in 2004, raised £22.5 mill and was subsequently sold to Pfizer in 2006. Prior to this Brenda was Vice President of Portfolio & Programme Management at PowderJect Pharmaceuticals plc.
MD
Gerard has worked within the pharmaceutical industry for 30 years, holding several senior medical and clinical research positions. He spent the last 24 years of his career with MSD (Merck & Co) as Medical Director for the Netherlands, later for the Middle East & Africa, and as Executive Director Clinical Research with responsibilities for Scandinavia, Baltics, Austria, Switzerland and eventually for Belgium and the Netherlands. Gerard holds a medical degree (MD) from the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Callum is founder and Managing Director of gofastforward: a management, leadership and development consultancy. Since 1994, the gofastforward team has designed and delivered strategic leadership development solutions to a wide variety of clients from Energy to Healthcare, from local SME to global corporate and from Public to Private Sector. An honours graduate in Technology and Business Administration, Callum is an experienced Executive Coach working with business leaders on performance, productivity and the management of change. Additional activities include a recently completed second term as Board Member and Chair of the Finance & Operations Committee in Scotland’s national dance company, Scottish Ballet. Callum is owner of an olive farm in Andalucía, Spain.
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