
About Us
Management Team
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Prof. Hartmut J. Ehrlich, M.D. Chief Executive Officer
Hartmut is a physician with 30 years of experience in academia and in the biopharmaceutical industry, 20 of which were in product development at Baxter and Sandoz (now Novartis). He has lived and worked in the United States (Eli Lilly and Indiana University, Dept. of Medicine), the Netherlands (Central Laboratory of the Dutch Red Cross), Germany (Max Planck Foundation, Sandoz, Baxter), Switzerland (Sandoz), Austria (Baxter) and France (Abivax).
Over the past seven years before joining Abivax, Hartmut, as Head of Global R&D, successfully built and advanced Baxter BioScience’s R&D portfolio with over 50 programs in preclinical and clinical development. He drove the regulatory approval of key biologics in the specialty areas of Hemophilia, Thrombosis, Immunology, Neurology, Oncology, Biosurgery and Vaccines, thereby bringing novel therapies to patients with substantial medical needs. Hartmut has authored and co-authored over 120 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. In 2011, Hartmut was named “Professor” by the Austrian President and the Austrian Minister for Science and Research, and he received the title of “Adjunct Professor” of the Danube University Krems, Lower Austria in 2013.
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Didier Blondel EVP, Chief Financial Officer & Board Secretary
Didier was Chief Financial Officer at Sanofi Pasteur MSD, a Lyon-based joint-venture between Sanofi and Merck, and European leader in human vaccines, since 2012. During the previous 20-year period, Didier held a wide scope of senior finance positions at Sanofi, in Commercial Operations and then R&D, where he became Global R&D CFO. He started his career as an auditor at Price Waterhouse Coopers, after graduating from the Commercial Institute of Nancy (ICN), a leading French Business School. He also holds a Master in Finance and Accounting degree from University of Nancy, as well as a Professional Certificate in Finance and Accounting (DESCF).
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Sheldon Sloan, M.D., M. Bioethics Chief Medical Officer
Sheldon Sloan brings over 30 years of experience in academia and the biopharmaceutical industry, with an extensive track record in the field of gastroenterology and IBD. Prior to joining Abivax, Sheldon worked for Arena Pharmaceuticals and, after its acquisition, for Pfizer. He was Program Lead for Etrasimod UC, responsible for cross-functional leadership, planning and management, operational business process planning, and execution management of the Ulcerative Colitis program, including its global submission and launch. Before joining Arena Pharmaceuticals, Sheldon held different leadership positions at J&J in Medical Affairs, R&D, and Science Policy. In his last position at J&J, he was Global Medical Affairs Leader for IBD, leading the global launch strategy and execution for Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis for Stelara. Sheldon also has a strong track record in bioethics and has been involved on different levels in questions addressing bioethics issues including animal care and use and human subjects research. Sheldon holds an M.D. from Rush Medical College, Chicago, USA, and a Master of Bioethics from the University of Pennsylvania, USA. He has authored a large number of scientific publications and abstracts and contributed to various books in the gastroenterology and immunology fields.
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Pierre Courteille, Pharmacist, MBA Chief Commercial Officer & Vice President of Business Development
Pierre has more than 20 years of experience in marketing and sales within the pharmaceutical industry in France and in Japan. He holds a pharmacy degree and MBA from Chicago Booth University (USA). At Sanofi-Pasteur Japan, and its joint-venture with Daiichi, Pierre was in charge of the pre-launch activities of HIB/ meningitis and IPV/polio vaccines as Marketing Manager. At the start of 2005, he became President of Guerbet Japan and VP for Guerbet Asia. He successfully managed the roll-out of its Japanese subsidiary and led the development of other branches in Asia. From 2009, Pierre served as VP Sales for Asia, Latin America and EMEA and met the ambitious objective of optimizing commercial performance across these 3 regions. Prior to joining Abivax, Pierre was Senior VP sales and marketing for Guerbet and CEO of MEDEX (medical devices company owned by Guerbet) from 2012. Also, Pierre is Vice President of France Biotech and President of the Chicago Booth Alumni Club of France.
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Paul Gineste, Pharm D. Vice President of Clinical Operations
Paul brings 20 years of experience in clinical development and strategy with leading international pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Paul began his career in 1998 with Boehringer Ingelheim as International Clinical Trials Manager before taking over the position of Head of Clinical R&D at Altana Pharma in 2003. In 2007, Paul was appointed Director of Clinical Studies at AB Science where he led the early clinical development of a tyrosine kinase inhibitor in the U.S. and Europe. In 2013, he moved to Theravectys, a spin-off of the Institut Pasteur specialized in lentiviral vectors, as Executive VP, Clinical Development. Paul joined Abivax in 2015 as Head of Clinical Operations. Paul holds a doctorate in pharmacy from the University of Rouen, France and a Master’s degree in Law from the University of Paris XI.
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Mary Mantock, MSc Vice President Regulatory Affairs
Mary has over 20 years of experience in global development and consulting roles for regulatory affairs. Most recently, Mary was Executive Director, RA, Astellas Global Development for immune-oncology, leading a global regulatory team responsible for products in all phases of development and life-cycle management. She has led the regulatory strategy for recent approvals for several products by FDA, EMA and PMDA, and has prior CRO experience at Parexel as a senior global regulatory consultant, based in UK.
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Jérôme Denis, Ph.D. Vice President Process Development & Manufacturing
Jérôme has more than 10 years of experience in pharmaceutical development and drug product manufacturing for clinical and commercial use. He started his career as project manager in Canada and France working on several programs targeting different infectious diseases. He joined Imaxio (Lyon, France) in 2009 as Executive Head of Development and then Associate Director of Vaccine Development: he successfully initiated and led different process development and transfer programs. In 2014, he joined Abivax as Manufacturing Director, in charge of the implementation and coordination of all process development and manufacturing operations. He also handled Investigational Medicinal Product supply for all clinical studies in Asia and Europe. Jérôme holds a Ph.D. in Immunology and Microbiology from Laval University (Québec, Canada).
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Sylvie Girardet Quality Director
Sylvie has 20 years of experience in the biotechnology industry, in regulatory operations and later as well as in quality management. She joined Abivax in 2022 in the position as Quality Director.
Sylvie worked for the American company Biogen, where she had a key role for the submission of the first new CTD format (Common Technical Document) simultaniously in the European Union and the US. Sylvie was also in charge of the coordination of the submission in Australia at the Biogen affiliate in Sydney.
Prior to joining Abivax, Sylvie held for 14 years the position of quality manager at the French company, LFB Biotechnologies, where she supervised the QA team in the field of research of experimental drugs for rare diseases. As a multisite GMP Inspection Readiness project manager (two sites in US and three sites in France), Sylvie was further in charge of the FDA inspection subject matter Experts preparation that resulted in a BLA registration of a recombinant (transgenic) FVIIa for treatment and control of bleeding episodes of hemophilia A or B with inhibitors. -
Bob Clay, MSc, MBA Development Strategy Adviser
Bob is a strategic development consultant to Abivax with a tremendous experience in regulatory affairs at large pharmaceutical companies, such as Pfizer and Astra Zeneca. He is a leader in drug development and regulatory science with a strong track record of achievement in delivery regulatory approvals across a diverse range of therapy areas. He is an internationally renowned expert in the regulatory field and a highly solicited expert for different regulatory organizations and boards, such as the Academy of Pharmaceutical Science.
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Didier Scherrer, Ph.D. Vice President of R&D
Didier, prior to joining Abivax, combined the functions of CEO and Scientific Director at Splicos. Didier has a PhD in Molecular Pharmacology. He completed his post-doctoral studies at Harvard Medical School and then at the Stanford University School of Medicine. A Research Director at Entelos (California – USA) from 2000 to 2005, he then joined the Research Department of AstraZeneca as Associate Director (Capability Pathways – Discovery Enabling Capabilities and Sciences), and then joined as Head of Research, at LFB Biotechnologies where he led a team of fifty scientists in charge of developing the portfolio of therapeutic proteins in oncology, autoimmune diseases and hematology-oncology. He is the author of numerous publications and presentations in the field of systems biology applied to the research and drug development.
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Prof. Jamal Tazi, Ph.D. Vice President Research
Jamal is professor of functional genomics at the University of Montpellier, Senior Member at the University Institute of France and deputy director of the health center biology “Rabelais” responsible for education and training. He performed a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Molecular Pathology (Vienna, Austria), before joining the CNRS in 1990. For 20 years, he led his team within the Institute for Molecular Genetics in Montpellier (IGMM) to gain a better understanding of gene expression and editing of their products. In 2008 Jamal co-founded the company Splicos and established its partnership with public institutions as a cooperative laboratory, where he became Scientific Director. Jamal has co-authored over 90 publications in some of the leading international journals. His work on RNA metabolism and its role in human disease earned him four prizes: French Academy of Sciences (1999), French Academy of Medicine (2006), ARRI (2010), and CNRS Medal of Innovation (2017). Internationally, Jamal is the coordinator of a European Associated Laboratory (LEA) and also a member of a European network of excellence (EURASNET) which brings together the best European research centers working on alternative splicing.
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Regina Jehle Vice President Communications
Regina Jehle has ten years of experience in public relations and communications. Prior to joining ABIVAX in 2019, she was Head of Public Relations and Communications at BioNTech, a German biotech company developing individualised cancer treatments. Since 2014, she has established and developed BioNTech’s public relations department and external and internal communication strategies during a busy and high-growth period for the company. She was also involved in managing and coordinating collaborations with major pharmaceutical companies such as Genentech/Roche and Sanofi. Prior to working in the pharma/biotech sector, she served as an advisor to an MEP in Brussels (Belgium) and worked as a business development advisor at the Canadian German Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Montreal (Canada). She holds a Master’s degree in International Economics from the University of Tübingen (Germany).