AM-Pharma Appoints Chief Medical Officer and VP Manufacturing to Support Global Pivotal Trial in Sepsis-associated Acute Kidney Injury

UTRECHT, The Netherlands--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AM-Pharma B.V., an emerging leader focused on the treatment of kidney disease, sepsis and organ injury, today announced the appointment of Maarten Kraan, M.D., Ph.D., as Chief Medical Officer and Teun van de Laar, Ph.D., as Vice President Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management. Dr. Kraan, who brings over 25 years of biopharmaceutical industry experience, will lead the medical sciences and medical affairs efforts, supporting AM-Pharma’s global pivotal Phase III REVIVAL study to evaluate its proprietary recombinant alkaline phosphatase in patients with sepsis-associated acute kidney injury, as well as life cycle management and commercial readiness activities. Dr. van de Laar has over 20 years of experience in biotechnology scale up and manufacturing and will be responsible for leading the Company’s preparations for commercial readiness, CMC activities and global supply chain management.

“The appointments of Maarten and Teun come at an essential time for AM-Pharma as we finalize all preparations to move into the last stage of clinical development for our lead program,” said Erik van den Berg, Chief Executive Officer at AM-Pharma. “They both bring extensive experience from big pharma and biotechnology companies to execute on the plan to prepare for BLA and commercial readiness. We welcome them to our team and I am confident in our collective abilities to execute this large late-stage trial enrolling up to 1,600 patients with sepsis and acute kidney injury.”

Dr. Kraan joins AM-Pharma from Pierre Fabre S.A., a multinational pharmaceutical company, where he was the head of Research & Development and responsible for the R&D strategy (France). Before Pierre Fabre, Dr. Kraan was head of R&D at Stallergenes Greer Ltd. (UK); Chief Medical Officer at Therachon (Switzerland), acquired by Pfizer; Senior Vice President, Head Innovative Medicines Respiratory and Inflammation at AstraZeneca (Sweden); Vice President, Head Clinical Research and Experimental Development Inflammation Hoffmann – La Roche (USA); Vice President, Immunosciences Bristol Myers-Squibb (USA) and Schering-Plough (currently part of Merck/MSD, USA). He has been involved in the launch of Nulojix® (belatacept) for delayed graft function in renal transplant and Remicade® (infliximab) for rheumatoid arthritis. Dr. Kraan is a board-certified rheumatologist and holds a M.D. and Ph.D. in immunology from Leiden University.

Dr. van de Laar joins AM-Pharma from Aduro Biotech, a Dutch biotechnology company developing novel approaches to treat cancer, autoimmune- and inflammatory diseases, where he held the position of VP CMC Technical Operations. At Aduro, he was responsible for all manufacturing and supply chain activities for the company’s biologics and small molecules and managed a transatlantic team. Prior to Aduro, Dr. van de Laar held various development and manufacturing positions at MSD (trademark of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., USA) from the period of 2006 to 2016. Earlier in his career, he held development and engineering positions at BAC, part of Life Technologies, Unilever, and Crucell. Dr. van de Laar holds a M.Sc. in Bioprocess Technology from Wageningen University and a Ph.D. in Cell Biology from Utrecht University.

About AM-Pharma

AM-Pharma's purpose is to save and improve the lives of patients confronted with kidney disease, sepsis and organ injury. Our initial focus is sepsis-associated acute kidney injury, the cause of death for hundreds of thousands of people hospitalized each year. Our proprietary recombinant human alkaline phosphatase has the potential to become the first treatment for sepsis-associated acute kidney injury and is now in a global pivotal Phase III clinical trial. We are a dedicated team driven to bring treatment options to severely ill patients, their families and acute care professionals.

Find out more about us online at: www.am-pharma.com.

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