Lille, Friday March 27th, 2024 – Vetbiolix (LOOS – Parc Eurasanté Lille Métropole), a France-based veterinary biotechnology company dedicated to the clinical development of First-in-Class drug candidates for the treatment of periodontitis, osteoarthritis and gastric motility disorders in dogs and cats, announces the arrival of Dr Karine Bertrand as Chief Pharmaceutical & Technical Officer – Board Member. Karine Bertrand is responsible for the entire CMC (“Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls”) aspect of the company’s products, and particularly the pharmaceutical development of the company’s 3 flagship programs. Karine Bertrand also joins the VETBIOLIX Strategic Committee alongside the company’s co-founders Matthieu Roquette (President), Matthieu Dubruque (Managing Director), Rémy Hanf (Chief Scientific Officer) and historical VCs shareholders.
Karine Bertrand is a graduate of ESPCI Paris (École Supérieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris) and holds a doctorate in medicinal and organic chemistry from the University of Lille. Karine began her career at UCB Pharma then successively joined Genfit (Euronext: GNFT) and Da Volterra where she held several strategic positions (Director of Pharmaceutical and Analytical Chemistry and Development, Director of Strategic Planning and Management of Programs, Executive Vice President of Corporate Development and Director of Product Development). With over 25 years of experience in R&D and pharmaceutical project management, she has a wide range of expertise covering the design and operational and technical management of pharmaceutical discovery, development, manufacturing and control programs, as well as as the definition and implementation of regulatory strategies for products until the moment they are marketed as medicines and medical devices. Throughout her career, she was able to negotiate numerous agreements with manufacturers and suppliers of pharmaceutical raw materials from all continents and supervised the manufacturing of several tons of GMP products.
Karine Bertrand, CPTO – Board Member of VETBIOLIX declared: “VETBIOLIX is a young and agile veterinary biotech with a remarkable economic model. This has enabled it to build a unique pipeline of several drug candidates, first in new classes of veterinary medications, and already advanced in terms of pharmaceutical development. I am very happy to join the team and to be able to play a decisive role in the development of these new therapeutic solutions, in particular to invest in the remaining challenges to meet industrial, commercial and regulatory requirements. »
Matthieu Roquette, founder et President of VETBIOLIX said: « We are obviously delighted that Karine has joined us. Its operational and strategic experience in the Drug Development process over the last 25 years will allow VETBIOLIX to significantly accelerate on the “CMC” industrial aspect, fundamental in our discussions with potential future purchasers of our drug candidates within of the global veterinary industry. »
Matthieu Dubruque, founder and Managing Director of VETBIOLIX mentioned: « This is a 5-stars recruitment for the company! We are very proud to have convinced Karine to join us. This demonstrates the coherence and attractiveness of the VETBIOLIX project: the innovation and potential of its pipeline of course, but also the solidity of its shareholder base and the complementarity of its management team “Business-Science-Clinique” and now “CMC-Pharmaceutical Development”. We are now perfectly equipped to meet the challenges of regulatory clinical and pharmaceutical development and move forward effectively with the EMA and the FDA. Welcome Karine ! »
About Vetbiolix – https://www.vetbiolix.com
Vetbiolix develops innovative products for the treatment and prevention of diseases affecting pets. Vetbiolix has built a unique pipeline of First-in-class small molecules in-licensed (exclusive and worldwide license) from Human Biotech worldwide which will answer to veterinary unmet medical needs in periodontitis, osteoarthritis and gut motility disorders. Vetbiolix focuses exclusively on clinical developments of its drug candidates: the company invests on (i) clinical proof of concept studies, (ii) CMC-Pharmaceutical development, (iii) regulatory clinical Pilot studies and (iv) regulatory clinical Pivotal studies. Revenue generation of the company will be based on out-licensing and/or co-developments deals with the Veterinary Pharmaceutical Industry.
Since mid-2022, VETBIOLIX has been conducting multicenter European Proof of Concept clinical studies on dog patients and cat patients with its most advanced drug candidates:
– VBX1000: Clinical Proof of Concept studies of a Cathepsin-K inhibitor in dog patients (VBX1200-CL-1001 PoC study) and cat patients (VBX1100-CL-1001 PoC study) suffering from periodontitis
– VBX2000: Clinical Proof of Concept studies of an Adenosin-A3 agonist in dog patients (VBX2400-CL-1001 PoC study) suffering from osteoarthritis
– VBX3000: Clinical Proof of Concept studies of a new generation 5-HT4 agonist in dog (VBX3600-CL-1001 PoC study) and cat patients (VBX3500-CL-1001 PoC study) suffering from gastric motility disorders