VICEBIO - Key Persons
Craig has been with UniQuest, the commercialisation company of The University of Queensland, since 2004 and is currently the Senior Director and Head of Life Sciences. Prior roles at UniQuest included Senior Director Industry Engagement and Manager of Innovation and Commercial Development. Before joining UniQuest, Craig was a Business Development Manager at Cambridge Antibody Technology in the UK before the company was listed on the NASDAQ and acquired by AstraZeneca. He has more than 20 years of deal-making and IP commercialisation experience - negotiating agreements totalling more than $100 million - including securing venture capital to establish start-up companies and licensing with major pharma and biotechnology companies based in the US, UK, Europe and Australia. As well as Vicebio Ltd, Craig serves on the board of a number of UniQuest portfolio companies, including Liperate Pty Ltd and a start-up company in stealth mode, and is a past director of Dendright Pty Ltd, Nexgen Plants Pty Ltd, TenasiTech Pty Ltd and Aquahydrex Pty Ltd.
Emmanuel Hanon (Manu) is the Chief Executive Officer of Vicebio and has more than 20 years experience in vaccine research & development. He led the merger between Novartis and GSK R&D organisations and ran global vaccines R&D at GSK for 7 years. Manu has broad functional knowledge including R&D, medical, clinical, regulatory, technical CMC, manufacturing and quality operations. At GSK, he oversaw the discovery and development of four major vaccines : quadrivalent influenza (Fluarix and Flulaval Quadrivalent), shingles (Shingrix), malaria (Mosquirix), and RSV older adult vaccines.
Job Titles:
- Chief Medical Officer
- Partner
Giovanni Della Cioppa is the Chief Medical Officer of Vicebio and is an independent consultant specialising in clinical R&D. Over the years, his clients included GSK, Novartis, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UK Government and several medium size and start-up pharmaceutical companies. From 2015 to 2017 Giovanni was the Head of the Siena R&D Centre, one of three GSK global centres devoted to vaccines research and development. From 2007 to 2015, with Novartis and then GSK, Giovanni led the clinical development of numerous vaccines, including H1N1 pandemic influenza vaccines and vaccines against invasive meningococcal disease (Menveo and Bexsero). Previously, Giovanni spent most of his career with Novartis Pharma, where he held positions of increasing responsibility in Switzerland, UK and US, leading development of novel therapeutics in respiratory, dermatological and infectious diseases. Giovanni received his medical degree from the University of Naples, Italy, and holds post-graduate degrees in Internal Medicine and Pharmaceutical Medicine.
Giovanni is a Partner at medicxi and a member of the co-founding team. He is also the chairman of Vicebio's board of directors.
Jean Smal is the Chief Technology Officer of Vicebio and is a senior consultant with global experience in the R&D and manufacturing vaccine industry. He is currently supporting the vaccine projects of various companies and serves as a member of the WHO Advisory Panel for the Polio Eradication Program. He is chairman or independent board member of several biotech companies. He has previously served as Vice-President, Head of New Product Development at GSK Vaccines, covering development and scale-up of manufacturing processes, analytical methods, manufacturing for Phase I-III clinical trials, development strategy and organisational development. In this role, he directly contributed to the development and the launch of 12 new vaccines from 1998 to 2016, totalling over 4bn in sales in 2020. Prior to joining GSK, Jean was General Manager of Eurogentec, CDMO Division, a company offering development and GMP services for biopharmaceutical products. Jean Smal holds a degree in Bioengineering, a PhD in Biochemistry and post-graduate degree in Business Management. He has published over 50 peer reviewed scientific papers/communications in the biochemical field.
Juana Magdalena is the Vaccine Development Portfolio Leader at ViceBio. Juana has 20 years' experience in vaccine, gene therapy and research product development. At GSK, Juana was the Project Team Leader for the development of the shingles vaccine Shingrix and contributed to the development of respiratory influenza and RSV vaccine candidates. Juana also headed the Product Development Quality Team for the global R&D pipeline at GSK. Prior to joining ViceBio, Juana was Director of gene therapy technical development at UCB, where she oversaw the gene therapy portfolio.
Juana holds a degree in Biochemistry, a PhD in Microbiology University of Liège (ULg) and published over 20 peer reviewed scientific publications from her academic research in virology (ULg, Lelystad Veterinary Institute) and bacteriology (Institut Pasteur, Albert Einstein College of Medicine).
Julie Dutton is leading project management at Vicebio. She is an experienced molecular biologist and project manager and has been involved in vaccine research and development since 2004. At that time, she joined a small Australian biotech company, Coridon, and soon became their Senior Scientist, a role she undertook for almost 10 years. Her association with Coridon (later Admedus Immunotherapies and finally Jingang Medicine) continued in a consulting capacity until she joined the Molecular Clamp team at The University of Queensland in 2019. Her time is now divided between her research management role at UQ and project management of the RSV vaccine program at Vicebio. Julie has a First Class Honours degree in Biotechnology from the University of New South Wales, a PhD in Structural Biology from the University of Queensland and a Specialist Certificate in Biomedical Research Management from The University of Melbourne.
Keith Chappell is the Lead Scientific Advisor for Vicebio. He is a molecular virologist and group leader at the University of Queensland, Australia. Keith completed his PhD at the University of Queensland in 2006, which focused on West Nile virus, and a subsequent postdoctoral posting at the Carlos the Third Institute of Health in Madrid, Spain, which focused on respiratory syncytial virus. Keith is one of the inventors of the Molecular Clamp platform technology and co-lead of a program to establish a rapid response vaccine pipeline that was funded by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). In response to the CoVID-19 outbreak at the beginning of 2020, Keith co-led the production of a Molecular Clamp stabilised vaccine that progressed from sequence information to clinical trial dosing within 6 months.
Koen Huygens is the Chief Quality Officer of ViceBio and has more than 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical development, early clinical stage to commercial manufacturing and supply chain operations of biopharmaceutical and Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMPs). As a senior consultant, he provides strategic advisory to various clients in Europe, USA and Asia in process development, technology transfer, quality management, facility design and GMP manufacturing. Koen has established the GMP manufacturing and QA operations at TiGenix in Belgium and USA and was instrumental in the CMC development and EU approval of ChondroCelect, the first cell therapy approved in Europe. Over the years Koen has supported a variety of projects in a broad range of therapeutic indications and technologies. More recently, Koen acted as Qualified Person and Senior Director Process Development at eTheRNA immunotherapies, a Belgian mRNA technology company. Koen holds a PharmD and Industrial Pharmacist degree from the Universities of Leuven and Antwerp and a Postgraduate in Business Management from the University of Leuven. He is a licensed pharmacist and certified EU Qualified Person.