Venturing down unexplored paths

Chief Executive Officer

Ph.D. in Molecular Microbiology and M.Sc. in Medical Biology

Born: 1971

Shares: 1,328,474

Stock options: 419,614 (LTI 2021/2024),
900,000 (LTI 2022/2025)

Experience:Erik Manting holds a MSc in Medical Biology and a PhD in Molecular Microbiology. He worked for a number of years as a post-doctoral researcher in the field of immunology before making a career switch to banking in 2001. He spent more than 15 years in different commercial and management roles and his last five years in banking as Executive Director Corporate Finance at Kempen & Co. He became CEO of DCPrime BV in 2018 and CEO of Immunicum AB in March 2021, following the merger between both companies. The combined company was renamed Mendus in June 2022.

Ongoing engagementsSupervisory board member Synerkine Pharma BV, Independent Director Transcode Therapeutics Inc.

Chief Scientific Officer

M.D., Ph.D. Adjunct Professor in Clinical Immunology, Uppsala University, Sweden

Born: 1950

Shares: 621,736 (private and through related persons’ holdings), 184,000 (warrants)

Stock options: 188,806 (LTI 2021/2024),
420,000 (LTI 2022/2025)

Experience: Alex Karlsson-Parra has more than 20 years of experience within transplantation immunology. In addition to his position as Co-Founder and CSO at Mendus, he also serves as Associate Professor in Clinical Immunology at Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden, with special expertise in transplantation immunology and cancer immunotherapy and is former chairman of the Swedish Expert Group for Clinical Immunology. In 2014, Dr. Karlsson-Parra was awarded the Athena Prize,  the most prestigious award for clinical research in the the Swedish healthcare community. Prior to his current positions, he served as Associate Professor and Senior Physician at the Department of Clinical Immunology at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden and Uppsala University Hospital, Sweden.

Ongoing engagements: –

Chief Medical Officer

M.D., Ph.D., Dr. Rovers has a medical degree from Leiden University and a Ph.D. in Surgical Oncology

Born: 1970

Shares: 544,000

Stock options: 188,806 (LTI 2021/2024),
420,000 (LTI 2022/2025)

Experience: Jeroen Rovers trained as a pharmaceutical physician at the European Center of Pharmaceutical Medicine in Basel. In the past 20 years he worked in different academic institutes and companies, such as Wyeth and Organon and most recently at Kiadis Pharma where he held the role as Chief Medical Officer. Most of the products he worked on are related to oncology, haematology and transplantation.

Ongoing engagements: –

Chief Financial Officer

Degree in Business Administration and Economics from Högskolan Kristianstad and Växjö University

Born: 1966

Shares: 300,000

Stock options: 188,806 (LTI 2021/2024),
420,000 (LTI 2022/2025)

Experience: Lotta Ferm has nearly 30 years of finance and controlling experience from a range of corporations including most recently Doktor24 Healthcare AB and Medivir AB in the healthcare and life science sectors. She has held CFO, Head of Finance and Head of Controlling positions consistently over the last decade and led the corporate finance and accounting functions for multiple transitions for dynamic and innovative companies.

Ongoing engagements: –

Chief Technology Officer

Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering

Born: 1964

Shares: 0

Stock options:420,000 (LTI 2022/2025)

Experience: Leopold Bertea joined Mendus from Cellectis in 2022, a clinical-stage biotechnology company using a proprietary gene-editing platform to develop cell and gene therapies, where he most recently held the position of Senior Vice President Technical Operations Europe and Member of the Cellectis Executive Committee. With previous senior roles at Novartis, LFB Biotechnologies, and LFB’s subsidiary CELLforCURE, Sanofi, and Ciba-Geigy, Dr. Bertea brings a total of 27 years of biopharmaceutical industry experience to Mendus.

Ongoing engagements: –

Chairman since 2021

MBA in Finance and Management from Columbia Business School

Born: 1974

Shares: 80,000 (through related)

Experience: Christine Lind is an American citizen, born in 1974. Christine Lind holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and information system from New York University, Stern School of Business, and an MBA-degree in finance and management from Columbia Business School. Christine Lind has extensive experience from management roles in the global biotech industry (e.g. Vice President Business Development at LifeCell Corporation and Executive Vice President Business Development and subsequently CEO of Medivir AB) and as a strategic and financial advisor to biotech and pharmaceutical companies (at Merrill Lynch & Co). Christine Lind is currently a board member of Xspray Pharma AB, CEO and chairman of the board of directors of Lind Growth Strategy AB and Vice President, Commercial of NDA Group AB.

Ongoing engagements: Board member of Xspray Pharma AB, CEO and chairman of the board of directors of Lind Growth Strategy AB and Vice President, Commercial of NDA Group AB

Independency: Christine Lind is independent in relation to the company, its senior executives and major shareholders.

Board Member since 2021

Ph.D. in Immunology and Oncology and an M.S. in Molecular and Cell Biology

Born: 1966

Shares: 0

Experience: Andrea van Elsas has previously served as Chief Scientific Officer at Aduro Biotech, following the acquisition of BioNovion, a company he co-founded in 2011, and held various positions at Organon (acquired by Schering-Plough and later by Merck) in The Netherlands and Cambridge, Massachusetts, US. While working for Organon and Schering-Plough, he directed the immuno-oncology portfolio and led the anti-PD1 program that later became known as pembrolizumab. As a postdoctoral researcher, he worked in the lab of 2018 Nobel Laureate Jim Allison at the University of California, Berkeley and is a co-inventor on the original anti-CTLA-4 patents that formed the basis for the development of ipilimumab, the first checkpoint inhibitor approved in 2011 by the FDA for the treatment of melanoma.

Ongoing assignments: Partner with Third Rock Ventures, Interim CSO at Abata Therapeutics, Supervisory Board member at InteRNA Technologies, Scientific Advisory Board member at Lava Therapeutics (Chair).

Independency:Andrea van Elsas is independent in relation to the company, its senior executives, and major shareholders.

Board Member since 2021

Ph.D. in Biochemistry and a M.B.A. from the Rotterdam School of Management

Born: 1962

Shares: 50,000

Experience: Hans Preusting has previously served as the Chief Business Officer and interim COO of uniQure. Prior to that he was the VP of Process Development and Manufacturing at AMT, the predecessor of uniQure. Hans now works as an independent consultant for several biotech companies and is co-founder of two biotech start-up companies. He holds two patents and has published over 20 scientific articles. His expertise is focused on business development, product development and manufacturing. He earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands and an M.B.A. from the Rotterdam School of Management, the Netherlands.

Ongoing engagements: Dr. Preusting is currently CEO of Synerkine Pharma B.V. and CDO of DegenRx B.V.

Independency:Hans Preusting is independent in relation to the company, its senior executives, and major shareholders.

Board Member since 2021

Master’s degree in Business Economics, master’s degree cum laude in Aerospace Engineering

Born: 1976

Shares: 1,323,073

Experience: Dharminder Chahal is currently the CEO and co-founder of SkylineDx, The Netherlands, developing diagnostic tests in oncology. He is also owner and managing director of Exponential BV in which capacity he acts as consultant to Van Herk Investments. Previously he has held various positions in investment banking and asset management including at Kempen & Co and Robeco.

Ongoing assignments: Board member of BioInvent, Ceradis, Medis Medical Imaging, Sensara and Vitalnext as well as advisory board member of BioGeneration Ventures II, Thuja Capital Fund I and Gilde Healthcare Funds II and III.

Independency:Dharminder Chahal is independent in relation to the company and its senior executives, and dependent in relation to the major shareholders.

Board Member since 2020

MSc, Ph.D. from Lund University

Born: 1962

Shares: 16,000

Experience: Helén Tuvesson is a Swedish citizen, born in 1962 and holds a doctor’s degree in cellular and molecular biology in medical science at Lund University. She has more than 25 years of experience from the pharmaceutical industry in various positions within Pharmacia and Active Biotech, including as Chief Scientific Officer at Active Biotech for 6 years. In this role she was responsible for the operational research activities and the company’s project portfolio in late stage clinical development in neurodegenerative diseases and cancer indications. Since 2017, Helén is the CEO of Active Biotech AB.

Ongoing engagement: CEO, Active Biotech AB

Independency: Helén Tuvesson is independent in relation to the company, its senior executives and major shareholders.

Board Member since 2020

MSc from Stockholm School of Economics and Business Administration

Born: 1952

Shares: 0

Experience: Sven Andreasson is a Swedish citizen, born in 1952 and resides in Washington DC, US. Sven holds a degree in business administration from Stockholm School of Economics and MBA-educations from IMEDE Lausanne, INSEAD Fontainebleau and Ashridge London. Sven Andreasson has broad experience from biotech and pharmaceutical companies. He was CEO of Active Biotech AB 1999-2008, Beta-Cell NV in Belgium 2008-2012 and Isconova AB 2012-2013 where he initiated and completed a sale of the company in 2013 to the American company Novavax. Sven has also held several senior management positions within Pharmacia in Sweden, Germany, Belgium and France. Previous experience from board assignments includes e.g., TiGenix NV, Belgium, Immunicum AB and Cantargia AB as well as Chairman of Erytech SA, France.

Ongoing engagements: Sven is currently working as Senior Vice President of Novavax with responsibility for Business Development. Board member of Cellastra Inc., US and Erytech SA, France.

Independency: Sven Andreasson is independent in relation to the company, its senior executives and major shareholders.

Chair of the SAB

Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Immunology at VU University, Amsterdam

Experience: Ada Kruisbeek, Ph.D. previously served as Chief Scientific Officer at DCprime, which she founded in 2005. She has worked at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, USA, and previously held the position of Head of the Department of Immunology at the NKI-AVL (Netherlands Cancer Institute and Antoni van Leeuwenhoekziekenhuis Hospital) in Amsterdam. She is an Emeritus Professor of Immunology at VU University, Amsterdam where she also served as scientific director of the Life Sciences Center and the Technology Transfer Office of the VU.

Member of the SAB

M.D., Ph.D. Professor, Head of the Clinical Cancer Research Program, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen; Director, Centre for Cancer Immunotherapy (CCIT); consultant in Oncology, Herlev University Hospital

Experience: Inge Marie Svane, MD, PhD, joins Immunicum’s Scientific Advisory Board with 25 years of research experience in cancer immunology and immunotherapy. With her focus of expertise on T cell based adoptive cell therapy and other cellular therapies, cancer vaccines and immune regulation, she has greatly contributed to the field of cancer immunotherapy. Since 2001 she has initiated more than 20 Phase I and II immunotherapeutic trials as sponsor or principle investigator and has served as investigator and co-investigator on numerous international clinical trials in collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry, primarily within the area of cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Svane also led the establishment and currently serves as Director of the Centre for Cancer Immunotherapy (CCIT), Herlev University Hospital at the University of Copenhagen. Inge Marie has served as Chair of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Scientific Committee on Immunotherapy and is author/co-author of more than 170 scientific publications including papers in Clinical Cancer Research, Cancer Research, Blood, Nature Immunology, Nature Biotechnology, Lancet Oncology, Immunology, Journal of Translational Medicine, PLOS ONE and Oncoimmunology, among others.

Member of the SAB

M.D., Ph.D. Vice Chair for Translational Research, Department of Medicine; Director of Cancer Vaccine and Dendritic Cell Therapies, Center for Immunotherapy; Professor of Oncology; and Co-Leader, Tumor Immunology & Immunotherapy (TII) CCSG Program, at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center

Experience: Pawel Kalinski is a distinguished MD/PhD researcher with over 30 years of experience in the field of tumor immunology. Dr. Kalinski’s research focuses on cell therapies and the manipulation of tumor microenvironments with a strong focus on the biology of dendritic cells, T cells and tumor microenvironment-associated myeloid cells. Currently, Pawel holds the positions of Vice Chair for Translational Research, Department of Medicine; Director of Cancer Vaccine and Dendritic Cell Therapies, Center for Immunotherapy; Professor of Oncology; and Co-Leader, Tumor Immunology & Immunotherapy (TII) CCSG Program, at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, NY, USA. His research has been featured in over 120 international publications. Dr. Kalinski is also a member of several prestigious organizations including the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, American Association for Cancer Research, American Society for Clinical Investigation and the American Association of Immunologists and is a member of the editorial board of leading publications in the immuno-oncology field such as OncoImmunology and Journal for Immunotherapy of Cancer.

Member of the SAB

Ph.D., Professor in Experimental Cancer Immunology and Therapy, Department of Medical Oncology, Leiden University Medical Center; Senior Investigator, Oncode Institute, The Netherlands

Experience: Sjoerd van der Burg, PhD, is a Professor in Experimental Cancer Immunology and Therapy at the Department of Medical Oncology of the Leiden University Medical Center and Senior Investigator at the Oncode Institute in The Netherlands. His group performs fundamental, translational, and clinical studies focusing on factors of host-tumor interactions that determine the success and failure of immune system control of cancer. Dr van der Burg has extensive experience in monitoring innate and adaptive immune responses and exploits this to guide the development of cancer therapies. He has a PhD in immunology from Leiden University.

Member of the SAB

Ph.D., Professor, Translational Tumor Immunology and Fenna Diemer Lindeboom Chair, Amsterdam University Medical Center

Experience:Tanja de Gruijl, PhD, is a Professor of Translational Tumor Immunology and holds a Fenna Diemer Lindeboom Chair at the Amsterdam University Medical Center where she also heads the immunotherapy and immune monitoring lab. Her research ranges from preclinical studies to monitoring of Phase I-III clinical trials and includes topics such as the immune potentiation of tumor-draining lymph nodes and the tumor microenvironment, immunological arming of oncolytic adenoviruses, and nanobody-mediated targeting of Natural Killer T-cell subsets. Dr de Gruijl supervised the research that supported the foundation of DCprime. She has recently been elected to the board of directors of the Society for the Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC). Dr de Gruijl holds a PhD in tumor immunology from the VU Amsterdam.