Scenic Biotech Appoints Industry Veteran Ben Machielse to Board of Directors.
Scenic Biotech has announced the appointment of Ben Machielse to its board of directors. Machielse has over 25 years of experience within the biotech industry, specifically in the development of therapeutics through clinical evaluation up to market approval, both in start-up and fully established companies. He replaces Sandra Glucksmann, who was previously an independent member of the board.
Oscar Izeboud, CEO of Scenic Biotech said, “As Scenic continues on its mission to develop a novel class of therapeutics for genetic disorders, Ben's extensive experience across all stages of drug development and for rare disease indications, including Niemann-Pick Disease, will be instrumental in our next phase of growth. Together with Ben, we are well positioned to materialise on Scenic’s potential to rebalance health by neutralising disease impact with our pipeline of modifier therapies. On behalf of the company, I would also like to thank Sandra for her remarkable contributions over the past seven years. Her dedication has helped transform the company to where we are today.”
“Scenic’s pioneering approach, fuelled by its unique Cell-Seq platform, is opening unprecedented avenues to map previously unexplored biological pathways and investigate the complexities of disease biology in genetic disorders,” commented Machielse. “I look forward to supporting the Scenic team in navigating the path from discovery through therapeutic development, ensuring that their innovative treatments reach patients in need.”
Machielse previous achievements and experiences:
- Chief Executive Officer of Vtesse, a rare disease company specialising in the development of treatments for Niemann-Pick Disease.
- Chief Operating Officer of Omthera Pharmaceuticals, where he led the development and approval of a drug for the treatment of hypertriglyceridemia. His contributions helped lead to Omthera's IPO and acquisition by AstraZeneca.
- Executive Vice President of Operations at MedImmune, where he spent 11 years.
- Machielse held executive positions in product development, quality, and operations at Xoma Corporation and Centocor BV.
- Currently, he acts as chairman of the board at Mosanna Therapeutics and has held board positions at Polyneuron Pharmaceuticals, Xencor, Tetragenetics, Comet Therapeutics, and Complexa.
- Machielse has a Bachelor of Science in Medical Biology and a Master’s in Biochemistry from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands.