Founders

Dr Jacky Vonderscher, PhD, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

• Founder of Vonderscher&Co GmbH
• Senior executive with a broad R&D experience in the pharmaceutical industry
• Most recently Senior VP Head of Translation Research Sciences at Roche in USA and Switzerland (2010-2012)
• Senior VP head of Molecular Medicine Labs at Roche (2008-2010)
• Previously held other senior positions with Novartis in the USA and Switzerland (1979 to 2008)
• Known for his leading role in the discovery and development of Sandimmum Neoral® in the 90s
• Co-inventor on the first patents of Mycophenolic Acid Sodium salt (Myfortic® Product) and of Everolimus (Certican® and Afinitor® Products)
• Board member of Inatherys, Step Pharma and ObsEva and SAB member of Inotrem SA
• Board member of LyonBiopôle and IMI-JU (Innovative Medicines Initiative-Joint Undertaking)

Laurène Meyniel-Schicklin, Engineer, co-founder and Head of Bioinformatics

• 15 years experience in omics data management and analysis for drug discovery Team and project leader, responsible for bioinformatics, scientific data management and analysis
• Engineer in Biology and Computer Science (Genopole, Evry)
• 20 publications, inventor on 3 patents
• Forbes: Top 50 Women in Tech 2018

Dr Benoît de Chassey, PhD, co-founder and Head of Drug Discovery Platform

• Responsible for the drug discovery plateform of ENYO Pharma
• 18 years experience in high-throughput approaches in drug discovery
• Former project leader in functional screenings at Aptanomics
• 23 publications, inventor on 14 patents

Pr Patrice André, MD, PhD, co-founder and Medical Advisor

• Professor Emeritus of Virology at Charles Mérieux Lyon Sud Medical School, Lyon 1 University
• Former Head of clinical virology department at the Hospices Civils de Lyon
• Former Team leader at the International Center for Infectiology Research, Inserm, CNRS, ENS Lyon
• > 200 publications in international peer review and high-impact journals, inventor on 7 patents
• Co-founder and President of Hormae Pharma

Dr Vincent Lotteau, PhD, co-founder and Scientific Advisor

• Inserm Research Director, Immunologist
• Team leader at the International Center for Infectiology Research
• Former director of Inserm Unit « Fundamental and clinical immunology »
• Participated to several governmental missions
• Post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University and Scripps Clinic Research Foundation
• > 100 publications, Inventor on 11 patents
• Co-founder of Hormae Pharma

Dr Jean-Jacques Garaud, MD, co-founder

• CEO of Inotrem SA from 2013 to 2021
• Executive vice-president Medical and Scientific Affairs, Inotrem SA
• A senior executive with a broad R&D experience in the pharmaceutical industry
• Most recently Executive VP Head of Pharma Research and Early Development at Roche (2010 to 2012)
• Executive VP Head of Development and Chief Medical Officer at Roche (2007 to 2010)
• Previously held other senior positions with Shering-Plough in the USA (1991 to 2001) and with Novartis in the USA and Switzerland (2001 to 2007)
• Known for his leading role in the development of Interferon alpha, ribavirin and PEG-interferon in hepatitis C virus in the 90s

Inserm Transfert Initiative, co-founder

• Created in 2005, Inserm Transfert Initiative is a seed-capital company with € 39.7 M capital, further to its second fund raising in 2012.
• It focuses on providing seed capital for innovative young companies in the biomedical field. Inserm Transfert Initiative supports biotech entrepreneurs in the early stages of their companies’ development.
• Its current shareholders are BPI France, Inserm Transfert SA, AbbVie, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, GlaxoSmithKline, Ipsen, LFB, MSD (Merck & Co), Pfizer, Sanofi, SHAM, Shire.

www.it-initiative.fr