Our team

Jan Öhrström

Chairman

Jan Öhrström

Chairman

Senior Executive with international experience in Biotechnology and Pharma.

Management appointments in Large and Mid-Cap US/EU Biopharma companies (Novo Nordisk, ZymoGenetics inc). Proven track record with product approvals, financing, M&A and IPO at Nasdaq (ZGEN) and Euronext (ONWD.BR). Incorporated ProFibrix Inc in 2008, and led ProFibrix through $240Mill M&A with The Medicines Company Inc. Chairman of the Board at VarmX BV, Onward medical NV and Blaze Biosciences Inc.
M.D from Univ of Copenhagen followed by six years surgical training,
Dr Öhrström is a Danish citizen and resident in Denmark.

 

Paul Roos

Chief Financial Officer

Paul Roos

Chief Financial Officer

Paul has a wealth of experience in the international life sciences industry and investment banking, and will oversee VarmX’s finance department, whilst also bringing his leadership to the legal and IT functions.

Most recently, Paul served as CFO at Polyganics, a medical technology company that develops and commercializes bioresorbable devices for tissue repair and regeneration.Prior to Polyganics, he was CFO at IRX and Synthon, a privately-held specialty pharmaceutical company with gross revenue of over EUR 250 million and operations in six countries.

Paul began his career in the Corporate Finance division of Kempen & Co, a leading Dutch merchant bank. He advanced through a range of positions, ultimately becoming Executive Director of the Life Sciences/ Healthcare team. While at Kempen & Co, he advised on more than 35 M&A and capital market transactions, including successful exits and IPOs.

Paul holds Master’s degrees in Econometrics and Business Economics (both with honours) from the University of Amsterdam. In 2017, he completed the Emerging CFO program at Stanford University. Additionally, he was a non-executive director at Quirem Medical, a medical device company focused on selective internal radiotherapy, from 2015 until its acquisition by Terumo in 2020.

Ged Short

Chief Medical Officer

Ged Short

Chief Medical Officer

Ged has extensive clinical development experience, particularly in rare diseases and gene therapy, as well as an established track record of building and leading successful teams in clinical development and Medical affairs during over 20 years working in companies from big pharma to biotech start up.

Ged qualified in Medicine at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, now part of Imperial College, and after 8 years working in the NHS joined Lorex Synthelabo as a medical advisor on cardiovascular and psychiatry. When Sanofi acquired Synthelabo his role focussed on CNS therapeutics. He went on to join Pfizer to lead their UK CNS Medical Affairs team. Following this he joined Novartis UK where he worked on rheumatology and gastroenterology. He next joined global clincal development at Genzyme where he worked on an innovative treatment for hospital acquired infection before leading the global development team for an acute leukaemia medicine. Following the acquisition of Genzyme by Sanofi he led the global clinical development team for Pompe’s disease overseeing clinical development of the second generation Pompe disease ERT.

As work completed establishing the phase 3 development plan for the second generation Pompe’s disease ERT he joined Freeline, a gene therapy start-up. During almost five years at Freeline he established the medical, clinical, regulatory, and PV functions led numerous regulatory and advisory board meetings and started two gene therapy clinical programmes in haemophilia B and Fabry’s disease whilst setting the foundations for future programmes.

In addition to his medical degree he has passed the MRCP, is a Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine and has an MBA from London Business School.

Martijn Negen

Chief Operating Officer

Martijn Negen

Chief Operating Officer

Martijn brings over 25 years of experience in shaping strategy and executing and overseeing commercialization efforts as well as global business development in the pharmaceutical/biotech sector, from local to regional and global roles in large corporations as well as start-ups.

Most recently, Martijn led commercial strategy development and global launch preparations as the Vice President of Global Commercial Strategy & Business Development at AM-Pharma. He also played a key role in Business Development efforts shaping the company’s future after a phase 3 trial was discontinued for futility. Prior to that he held leadership positions of increasing responsibility and team sizes at companies including Portola Pharmaceuticals, Teva Global Specialty Medicines, Genentech, and other global pharmaceutical companies.

Martijn’s educational background includes an International MBA from Pepperdine University and TSM Business School, an International MSc. in Medical Biotechnology from De Montfort University, and a degree in Medical Laboratory Technology with a focus on immunology.

Bo Persson

SVP, CMC Development
& Project Management

Bo Persson

SVP, CMC Development
& Project Management

Bo Joined VarmX as SVP CMC Development & Project Management in September of 2019. Bo has over 30 years of experience in biologics development, spanning early R&D responsibilities, process development, technology transfers and commercial manufacturing, both in EU and US.

Prior to joining VarmX, between 2011 and 2019, Bo was project director at Novo Nordisk A/S where he was responsible for the transfer of new biologics candidates from R&D into Product Supply and subsequently submission of Biologics License Applications (BLAs) to Regulatory Authorities in both EU and US for new biologic entities. Before that, Bo was Senior Vice President at CMC Biologics A/S (now AGC Biologics), where he was responsible for management of the Copenhagen brand of the company, with specific focus on the Process Development and Project Management departments. During his time with ZymoGenetics Bo served in capacities as Head of Process Development and later Director of Clinical Manufacturing. In that period, he oversaw and managed the construction of the company’s first manufacturing site while also heading the outsourcing of manufacturing processes to contract organizations on multiple continents. Bo holds a Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and a Master in Cell Biology from the University of Copenhagen (KU).

Daniël Verhoef

Director of Research

Daniël Verhoef

Director of Research

Daniël Verhoef joined VarmX in 2019 as Senior Scientist and co-inventor of VMX-C001. Daniël has studied the biochemistry of blood coagulation extensively as graduate student at the department of Thrombosis and Hemostasis at LUMC under the supervision of Pieter Reitsma.

After his graduate studies he moved into industry to continue his work on protein biochemistry, protein engineering and assay development at Freeline UK, a gene therapy start-up. In his current role as Director of Research at VarmX, Daniël has set up the research laboratory to support CMC and Clinical operations. In addition, he acts as scientific lead on non-clinical programs, spearheads the pipeline discovery program and manages the growing scientific team.

Pieter Reitsma

Special Advisor and Founder

Pieter Reitsma

Special Advisor and Founder

Emeritus professor Pieter Reitsma is a leading expert in coagulation and previous head of the department of Thrombosis and Hemostasis at LUMC.

Pieter Reitsma has always worked at the interface of fundamental science and clinical applications. He is a translational scientist ‘avant la lettre’ who is among the very few to have brought drugs and diagnostic tests to the clinic.

In the early stage of his career he did the experimental animal and in vitro work which was needed to bring the bisphosphonate APD to the clinic to successfully treat patients with destructive bone disease. Later he turned to the field of Hemostasis and Thrombosis where he made seminal contributions that made him world leader in the genetics of Hemostasis and Thrombosis.

The test for factor V Leiden that he co-discovered is considered to be the most commonly performed genetic test in the world.

Jan Öhrström

Chairman

Jan Öhrström

Chairman

Oskar Slotboom

Member (BioGeneration Ventures)

Oskar Slotboom

Member (BioGeneration Ventures)

Guillem Laporta

Member (Ysios Capital)

Guillem Laporta

Member (Ysios Capital)

Simone Botti

Member (INKEF Capital)

Simone Botti

Member (INKEF Capital)

John de Koning

Member (LSP/EQT)

John de Koning

Member (LSP/EQT)

Lars Gredsted

Member (Lundbeckfonden BioCapital)

Lars Gredsted

Member (Lundbeckfonden BioCapital)

Casper Breum

Member (Sound Bioventures)

Casper Breum

Member (Sound Bioventures)

Alex Gold

Member

Alex Gold

Member

Harry Büller

Member

Harry Büller

Member

Professor of Internal Medicine/Vascular Medicine, University of Amsterdam Medical Center

Member DSMB Portola Pharmaceuticals

Glenn Pierce

Member

Glenn Pierce

Member

Medical and Scientific Advisory Council of the World Federation of Haemophilia (WFH) and US national Haemophilia Foundation (NHF)

SVP of Hematology, Cell and Gene Therapies Biogen (retired 2014)

Jeffrey Weitz

Member

Jeffrey Weitz

Member

Professor, Division of Hemotology and Thromboembolisium, McMaster University

Executive Director of the Thrombosis and Atherosclerosis Research Institute

Participant clinical trials Portola Pharmaceuticals

Robert Schaub

Member

Robert Schaub

Member

Chief Scientific Officer, NKT Therapeutics

Expert consultant on preclinical drug development

Uma Sinha

Member

Uma Sinha

Member

CSO Bridege Bio Pharma

Formerly Head of Biology with Portola Pharmaceuticals