Sapreme Appoints Experienced Industry Executives, Dr. Jeanne Bolger and Dr. Andre Hoekema, to its Board of Directors

UTRECHT, The Netherlands--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Sapreme, a biotechnology company focused on improving the delivery and efficacy of macromolecule therapeutics, today announced the appointment of experienced biopharmaceutical industry executives Jeanne Bolger, MD, and Andre Hoekema, PhD, to its Board of Directors. Both bring a wealth of executive, business and clinical development expertise from large pharmaceutical and innovative biotech companies as Sapreme now builds upon preclinical proof of concept in several disease indications and delivery models.

“We value the breadth and depth of Andre’s and Jeanne’s expertise and track record as Sapreme continues to grow and deliver on the potential of our technology. Their strategic guidance will be invaluable as we prepare for the next stages of corporate and scientific development for our endosomal escape technology platform and pipeline,” stated Guy Hermans, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Sapreme.

“I am looking forward to contributing to the advancement of Sapreme’s cutting-edge platform and its impact on the current therapeutic landscape. This technology is gaining recognition for its power for solving one of the most important challenges in large molecule pharmaceutical development to enable intracellular delivery and unlocking a vast number of disease targets,” commented Dr. Jeanne Bolger.

Dr. Andre Hoekema added: “Sapreme’s proprietary technology has the potential to greatly improve efficacy of large molecules and therefore offers many business development opportunities with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in the field of RNA and antibodies, among others. It will be exciting to support the company in further expanding the ongoing strategic collaborations with these companies.”

During her 35 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Jeanne Bolger has acquired a wealth of knowledge and expertise in licensing, M&A, business development, alliance management and venture capital investments. She served as a non-executive director on the board of over a dozen life sciences companies in her role as Vice President Venture Investing at Johnson & Johnson Innovation-JJDC for over 10 years. Her expertise spans drug discovery and development in numerous therapeutic fields, including oncology, neurology, immunology, and gene therapy. Dr. Bolger is a registered medical doctor and holds an MB BCh in Medicine from University College Dublin. She currently sits on the board of Life Healthcare SA and is Chairperson of the board at ExeVir and at Astrivax.

Dr. Andre Hoekema’s biotech career spans over four decades of senior positions overseeing corporate development including mergers and acquisitions, partnering and patent protection. Dr. Hoekema served as Chief Business Officer at Galapagos, Managing Director of Corporate Development Europe at Invitrogen Corporation, Managing Director at Molecular Probes Europe, and Director of Business Development at Crucell. He is an author in more than 30 peer-reviewed articles and has been granted more than 20 patents issued in the US and holds a PhD from Leiden University. Dr. Hoekema currently serves as board member of biotech companies Artax Biopharma, Fibrocor Therapeutics and Mimetas B.V.

About Sapreme

Sapreme’s mission is to develop next-generation macromolecule therapeutics by circumventing endosomal entrapment, thereby enhancing target engagement. The company’s proprietary endosomal escape platform improves the therapeutic window by enabling access to intracellular targets with minimal toxicity. This approach is applied for Sapreme’s internal pipeline and is available for partnering, without limitation to biologic modality or indication.

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