Kiadis Pharma appoints Dr. Maarten Egeler, MD PhD as Chief Medical Officer

Biopharmaceutical Company Kiadis Pharma focused on the development of innovative cell based therapeutics in the field of bone marrow transplantation, announces today the appointment of Dr. Maarten Egeler as Chief Medical Officer (CMO). Dr. Egeler is a global leading pediatric bone marrow transplantation physician and an internationally-recognized authority in pediatric hemato-oncology. He brings to Kiadis Pharma over more than 20 years of expertise in this field. 

The appointment of Dr. Egeler is an important milestone in the development of Kiadis Pharma’s lead product ATIR™ as a revolutionary approach to provide safe and potentially life-saving mismatched bone marrow transplantations as a treatment option for end-stage leukemia patients. Dr. Egeler’s appointment will strongly support the upcoming multi-center pivotal study on ATIR™ early 2009.
 
Dr. Egeler will join Kiadis Pharma part time next to his position as Head of the Pediatric Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplantation division of the University of Leiden. As Kiadis Pharma’s CMO, he will oversee all medical affairs of the company and he will work closely with the company’s global network of key opinion leaders in the transplantation community on the development of the company’s products.

"Maarten has been acting as a medical advisor for Kiadis Pharma over the last year and we are very pleased that he agreed to become our CMO", says Manja Bouman, CEO of Kiadis Pharma. “The depth of his medical expertise in the field of bone marrow transplantations, his leadership worldwide in haplo-identical transplantation and his network with key opinion leaders in the field will greatly contribute to the success of our products and company”.

“I am very excited to join Kiadis Pharma in the role of CMO.  I look forward to participate in the development of its programs. I am particularly excited to work on the  ATIR™ product, which is aimed at preventing acute Graft versus Host Disease and thus enables severe mismatched bone marrow transplantation (so-called ‘haplo-identical transplantation’) and is entering a pivotal study in early 2009”, says Maarten Egeler.  “I am confident that my background in this field within the pediatric setting will be valuable for the company.”

Dr. Maarten Egeler is Head of the division of Pediatric Immunology, Hemato-Oncology, Bone Marrow Transplantation and Auto-Immune diseases at the University of Leiden.  He was associate Professor at the University of Calgary, Alberta’s Children Hospital, Canada.  He received his medical training from the Universities of Leiden and Amsterdam, the Rode Kruis Hospital in Den Haag and the University of Minnesota, USA.  He obtained his medical degree at the University of Leiden and his PhD at the University of Amsterdam. Dr. Egeler is recognized for his career accomplishments in the field of pediatric hemato-oncology and transplantation, and has built a broad network in the global transplantation medical community. He is a member (and has held several Board positions) of numerous professional societies and committees, including the Dutch Childhood Oncology Group, the International Society of Pediatric Oncology (SIOP), the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (ASPHO) and the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT).

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About Kiadis Pharma
Kiadis Pharma is an oncology focused pharmaceutical development company with three products in different phases of clinical development. The company develops products that offer novel treatment options for terminally ill cancer patients and address significant unmet medical needs. The key focus indication for Kiadis Pharma is limitations and complications of bone marrow transplantation procedures performed in blood cancer patients. Kiadis Pharma is headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands with facilities in Groningen, The Netherlands and Montreal, Canada. For more information about Kiadis Pharma, please visit www.kiadis.com.