Khondrion Welcomes Hans Schikan, Former Prosensa CEO, to Advisory Board
August 10, 2015,
NIJMEGEN – Khondrion, the Dutch biopharmaceutical company focusing on small molecule therapeutics for mitochondrial diseases, announces today that Hans Schikan, former CEO of Prosensa, has joined Khondrion’s Advisory Board.
“We are delighted that Hans Schikan has joined our Advisory Board”, said Jos Lamers, chairman of Khondrion’s Advisory Board and CEO of Unilabs, Geneva, Switzerland. Hans’ long-term expertise in the rare-disease field is complementary to the existing expertise of the Advisory Board now consisting of Fons van den Donk, Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Anton van Wijk, Entrepreneur-in-Residence, and Denise van den Berg, Genzyme’s former Senior Director PGH Genzyme, Europe.
“I am excited about Khondrion’s potential to develop new treatments for patients with mitochondrial disease and look forward to give strategic advice to help build the company and bring Khondrion’s potential new drugs to the market”, said Hans Schikan.
Jan Smeitink, Khondrion’s CEO and Professor of Mitochondrial Medicine at the Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, said “With the appointment of Hans Schikan in the Advisory Board we have strengthened our Advisory Board which helps us to accomplish our mission – making a substantial contribution to the development of drugs for patients suffering from devastating mitochondrial diseases”.
Hans Schikan, PharmD, is an expert in drug development with a focus on rare genetic diseases. Until very recently he was CEO of Prosensa, which successfully completed an IPO on the US NASDAQ exchange in 2013 before being acquired by BioMarin early 2015. Hans Schikan is on the Boards of, amongst others, Prosensa Holding, Swedish Orphan Biovitrum, Hansa Medical, Wilson Therapeutics, Complix and the Core Team of the Top Sector Life Sciences & Health in The Netherlands. Before Prosensa he held various senior management positions at Organon and Genzyme. He has a PharmD from Utrecht University.
Khondrion is an innovative Dutch pharmaceutical mitochondrial medicine company focusing on developing small molecule therapeutics for mitochondrial diseases. The potential of several lead compounds to serve as new treatment modalities for mitochondrial disease is currently being explored. Khondrion’s frontrunner compound KH176 is in Phase 1 Clinical Trials and has been granted Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) for Leigh disease from the EMA and very recently a positive opinion from the COMP for MELAS syndrome. The FDA has granted Khondrion’s KH176 an ODD for all inherited mitochondrial respiratory chain disorders. Thanks to its strategic partnership with the Nijmegen Center for Mitochondrial Disorders of the Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Khondrion has access to all mitochondrial tools, technologies and expertise. Besides, Khondrion has established collaborations with patient organizations, patient advocacy groups and university research groups around the world as well as with small, medium and large enterprises. Khondrion is a privately held pharmaceutical company, among others supported by the Dutch Foundations Energy4All, Join4Energy, Road4Energy, Ride4Kids, Tim Foundation, Zeldzame Ziekten Fonds, Prinses Beatrix Fonds, and National and European Governments. Khondrion has established a strong intellectual property position protecting its emerging product portfolio through the filing of multiple broad patent applications.
