More info about Nacer Lounis

On-campus

Company
Janssen Pharmaceutica

Function
Senior Principal Scientist

More info about Tine de Marez

On-campus

Company
Johnson & Johnson

Function
Senior Director, Compound Development Team Leader TB

More info about Erik Niks

On-campus

Company
Leiden University Medical Center

Function
Neurologist - Pediatric neurologist

More info about Piet Hinoul

On-campus

Company
Virtual Incision

Function
Chief Medical Officer

A global healthcare executive, Piet Hinoul, M.D., Ph.D., brings 30 years of healthcare experience to Virtual Incision, of which the past 15 have been spent in the medtech industry. In his past roles, Piet has served as Senior V.P., Global Head Medical Affairs at Novocure, and V.P., Global Head for Medical, Clinical, and Pre-Clinical Affairs for the surgical subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, Ethicon. Piet is a European Board-certified gynecologist whose work has been published extensively on various surgery topics and who has lectured internationally throughout his career on the fields of urogynecology, surgery, and medical device innovation. Piet earned his M.D. from the University of Leuven, and his Ph.D. in biomedical sciences from the University of Amsterdam.

More info about Ad Sitsen

On-campus

Company
ClinPharMed Consultancy for Drug Development

Function
Owner

Prof. Dr J.M. Ad Sitsen completed his pharmaceutical studies at the State University of Utrecht in The Netherlands in March 1970 and obtained a Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry two years later. After having fulfilled his compulsory military service with the Royal Dutch Navy he began his medical studies in 1974, which he completed in 1980. He then specialized in pharmacology at the Rudolf Magnus Institute of the Medical Faculty of the University of Utrecht and subsequently trained for two years in internal medicine at the Academic Hospital of the same Medical Faculty. In 1984 he joined N.V. Organon, a business unit of Akzo Nobel, and has been involved in the clinical development of Remeron® from the beginning and also many other compounds. He retired in 2004 and now acts as a consultant to pharmaceutical companies. He was a member of the Dutch Health Council and a (part-time) professor of clinical pharmacology at the Medical Faculty of the Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands. He has published approximately 100 research articles and reports and was editor of volume 6 of the Handbook of Sexology: The Pharmacology and Endocrinology of Sexual Function (Amsterdam:Elsevier, 1988). He is co-editor of the Handbook of Anxiety and Depression: A biological Approach (New York: Marcel Dekker, 1994) and editor-in-chief of the major Dutch language textbook of pharmacology. Specialties: assessment of toxicological data, design of first time in man studies, clinical pharmacology, drug development, medical writing

More info about Paul Stoffels

Company
Galapagos

Function
CEO

Paul Stoffels joined Galapagos as Chief Executive Officer in April 2022, and is an executive member and the Chairman of our Board of Directors since 26 April 2022. He also is a member of the Executive Committee at Galapagos. Prior to that, he was Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee and Chief Scientific Officer of Johnson & Johnson where he set the company’s wide innovation agenda and led its pharmaceutical R&D-pipeline, as well as other external initiatives. Before that, he was worldwide Chairman of Pharmaceuticals of Johnson & Johnson which, under his leadership, significantly rejuvenated its product pipeline and adopted a transformational R&D-operating model, which resulted in the launch of 25 innovative medicines across the globe. Dr. Stoffels joined Johnson & Johnson in 2002, following the acquisition of Virco and Tibotec, where he was Chief Executive Officer and Chairman respectively, and where he led the development of several breakthrough products for the treatment of HIV. Dr. Stoffels also is a member of the Supervisory Board of Philips Healthcare in the Netherlands.

More info about Marcel Kenter

On-campus

Company
Paul Janssen Futurelab Leiden

Function
Director

Marcel Kenter studied molecular biology at Leiden University and obtained his PhD degree for his work on the genetics of the primate Major Histocompatibility Complex (Mhc) in the immunology department of Prof Johannes van Rood (Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), the Netherlands). He continued his post-doctoral work on virology at the department of Prof. Ab Osterhaus (Erasmus Medical Center, the Netherlands) and on gene therapy at the Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center. In 1999, he became the first executive director of the Central Committee Involving Human Subjects (CCMO); the competent authority for clinical trials with medicinal products in the Netherlands. He has been director of Paul Janssen Futurelab Leiden since 2015.  

More info about Koen Andries

On-campus

Company
Janssen Pharmaceutica NV

Function
VP Scientific Fellow Infectious Diseases Discovery

Dr Koen Andries (1951) studied Veterinary Sciences and obtained his PhD at the University of Ghent, Belgium. He joined the team of Dr. Paul Janssen in 1982.  Using cell-based assays in search of antiviral compounds, his team discovered nanomolar inhibitors of uncoating of rhinoviruses, picomolar inhibitors of fusion of respiratory syncytial virus and several non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors of HIV (TIBO’s, alpha-APA’s, and DAPY’s) with high activity against wild-type and resistant HIV-1 strains. Two of these became approved drugs: etravirine - intelence® and rilpivir - edurant®, and a third one is being developed as a microbicide in a vaginal ring to prevent HIV infection (dapivirine). Dr Andries also led the team that discovered R207910/TMC207 (bedaquiline – sirturo®), a first in-class new anti-tuberculosis drug, and its unique mechanism of action. Bedaquiline is the first molecule with specific activity against the ATP synthase, one of the most fundamental enzymes in biology, and the first antibiotic known to interfere with the generation of energy. He grandfathered bedaquiline from discovery to early development and eventually full development as the microbiology leader. He authors 173 papers, 179 abstracts and 32 patents, and is Professor emeritus at the University of Antwerp.

More info about Justin Hay

On-campus

Company
Cetara

Function
Senior Director

Justin Hay (1980) completed his BSc (Biomedical Science) with majors in Pharmacology, Microbiology & Immunology (2001) and graduated with First Class Honours (2002). In 2007 he was conferred his PhD in Medicine (Pharmacology) from the University of Adelaide, Australia. His thesis investigated the pain sensitivity of chronic opioid users and explored novel pharmacological analgesic strategies for these patients. From March 2007, Justin was in the position of Senior Clinical Scientist at CHDR, where he investigated how biomarkers of the central nervous system could be used as a screening tool in early drug development, with a particular interest in analgesics and pain models. In 2011 he was awarded his Certificate in Human Pharmacology from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom and in 2014 was awarded the Graduate Certificate (with distinction) in Clinical Pharmacology from King's College London. In October 2015 he started as Pharmacokinetics Assessor for the MHRA and is a member of the EMA's Modelling and Simulation Working Group (MSWG).

More info about André Elferink

On-campus

Company
Dutch Medicines Evaluation Board

Function
Clinical epidemiologist

I am a physician with a neurological and methodological background (clinical epidemiologist). Since 1992  I work as a senior clinical assessor at the Dutch Medicines Evaluation Board. As a clinical assessor I advice the Dutch Medicines Evaluation Board and the European Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products whether a medicinal agent may be approved for a claimed indication and if so, under which conditions. The MEB I started as a generalist but may main field of interest is neurology.  In this context  I am member of the CNS-Working party involved in setting up regulatory Scientific Guidelines. Within the neurology my special fields of interest are Multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease and Epilepsy. As generalist I  became member of the Scientific Advice Working party in 2012.

More info about Hans-Georg Eichler

Company
European Medicines Agency

Function
Senior Medical Officer

More info about Inge de Lepeleire

Company
MSD Europe

Function
Director Translational Pharmacology

More info about Koos Burggraaf

On-campus

Company
CHDR

Function
Research Director CVS & Metabolism

Koos (Jacobus) Burggraaf (1959) graduated in BioPharmaceutical Sciences (MSc) and Medicine (MSc) at Leiden University with a specialization in clinical pharmacology and qualified cum laude as an MD at Leiden University. Since 1990 he has held several positions at the Centre for Human Drug Research where he also obtained his PhD. He is professor ‘Translational Drug Development’ at the Leiden Academic Center for Drug Research. He is a board certified clinical pharmacologist and has held clinical attachments at several hospitals mainly in internal medicine since 1997. He is a full member of several (inter)national societies on clinical pharmacology and member of the board of the Dutch Association of Clinical Pharmacology. He is a member of the Leiden educational team for clinical pharmacologists and actively involved in the training of PhD students. He has published over 125 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals. His main focus of interest has been on early drug development (phase I/II), with special emphasis on biologicals, including method development (in particular in cardiovascular medicine, endocrinology, endothelial function, immuno-inflammation, gastrointestinal function), and pediatric drug research.

More info about Johan Garssen

Company
Danone/Nutricia Research

Function
Director Immunology Platform

More info about Rick Kuntz

Company
Medtronic

Function
Former Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific, Clinical and Regulatory Officer

Dr. Rick Kuntz was Medtronic’s Senior Vice President, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer of Medtronic and served as a member of the Company’s Executive Committee until 2021. In this role, Kuntz oversaw the company’s medical affairs, health policy and reimbursement, clinical research activities, and corporate technology.

More info about Geert Jan Groeneveld

On-campus

Company
CHDR

Function
CSO/CMO

Geert Jan Groeneveld (1971) is the Chief Scientific and Medical Officer of CHDR. In addition to serving on CHDR’s board, he is a professor of Clinical Neuropharmacology at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), and also works as a neurologist in the pain outpatient clinic of the Department of Anaesthesiology at the LUMC, where he sees patients with neurological causes of chronic pain. Groeneveld trained as a neurologist at the University Medical Center Utrecht, where he also obtained his PhD on the subject of new pharmacotherapeutic treatment strategies for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. From 2007 to 2009 he worked at the biotechnology company Genzyme where he was responsible for several gene therapy programs for Parkinson’s disease and helped to register enzyme replacement therapy for late onset Pompe disease. From 2009 to 2017, he served as Research Director at CHDR and was responsible for research in the areas of neurology and pain. While working as a Research Director at CHDR, Groeneveld also held a position as staff member in the Department of Neurology at the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam. Groeneveld’s primary scientific interest lies in early-phase drug development for the treatment of neurological diseases and pain. He has published over 100 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals and is actively involved in the training of PhD students at CHDR. In addition, he is a board-certified clinical pharmacologist and serves on the editorial boards of the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, Clinical and Translational Science and Frontiers in Pain Research.

More info about Oliver Bisazza

Company
Medtronic

Function
Former Director Regulatory Policy

More info about Saco de Visser

Company
Paul Janssen Futurelab Leiden

Function
Teacher and Clinical Pharmacologist

Saco de Visser became a registered clinical pharmacologist and obtained his PhD degree from Leiden University in 2003. After two years of business development at the Centre for Human Drug Research (CHDR) in the Netherlands, he worked at the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) setting up a subsidy programmes for Orphan and Expensive drug outcome research. In addition Saco was Director of Cluster Development at Leiden Bio Science Park and Medical Liaison for pipeline sourcing in North-West Europe at Nycomed (currently Takeda). Since 2016, he combines his position as Programme Officer for Public-private drug research collaboration at ZonMW with his position as Head of Education at Paul Janssen Futurelab Leiden.

More info about Richard Shull

Company
Shell

Function
Head of Deal Structuring and Trading Fundamentals

More info about Pierre Peeters

Company
Curare Consulting

Function
Early Clinical Development Expert

Pierre Peeters is a registered clinical pharmacologist working more than 35 years in the pharmaceutical industry, merely in early clinical drug development. He is a subject matter expert in clinical pharmacology in the broadest sense and has been involved in and/or responsible for the study design and conduct of several hundred early clinical trials as well as more than fifty (early) clinical development plans in various indications. He is able to quickly analyse and advise on complex matters at a strategic level and has an impressive track record of projects in which he efficiently led scientific, operational and/or integration teams to excellent results within the deadlines set. He has a strong drive and collaborative leadership style with the conviction and ability to delegate to all levels, and at the same time act as an energetic team player.  Pierre has a strategic view on innovative drug development with an in-depth knowledge of project- and lean drug development tools as well as a broad experience with operational and financial processes in early drug development. Before joining CURARE, Pierre held senior scientific and/or leadership positions at the Centre for Human Drug Research (CHDR), Organon (currently MSD) and Pharma Bio-Research (now PRA), all located in the Netherlands.