Khondrion appoints Jasper Levink as Chief Financial and Business Officer
September 11 2024 - 7:00AM
Khondrion appoints Jasper Levink as Chief
Financial and Business Officer
NIJMEGEN, the Netherlands – 11 September 2024:
Khondrion, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company discovering
and developing therapies targeting primary mitochondrial diseases,
today announces the appointment of Jasper Levink MSc, as Chief
Financial and Business Officer, effective immediately.
Prof. Dr. Jan Smeitink, Chief Executive
Officer at Khondrion, said: “We are delighted to welcome
Jasper to the Khondrion Leadership Team as our new Chief Financial
and Business Officer. His financial and business development
experience will be extremely important as we continue to execute
our strategy, progressing our late stage candidate, sonlicromanol,
alongside the development of our pipeline and expansion of our
clinical capabilities.”
Jasper Levink, Chief Financial and
Business Officer at Khondrion, added: “I am excited to be
joining Khondrion at a pivotal time in its development, helping to
drive the Company’s mission of bringing clinically meaningful
medicines to patients living with devastating mitochondrial
diseases. After the successful completion of four clinical trials
of sonlicromanol and with preparations underway for registrational
phase 3 studies, I am eager to bring my financial, operations and
business development experience to the accomplished team and to
work with medical and patient communities to leverage the
transformational potential of sonlicromanol for people living with
primary mitochondrial diseases.”
Mr. Levink has over a decade of experience in
business development and finance in biotech. Earlier roles include
Partner and Managing Director at ttopstart, a boutique consulting
company dedicated to business development and finance in biotech,
and CBO at LenioBio, a German biotech pioneering the first
eukaryotic cell-free protein expression platform. Recently he has
taken up the role of CEO at SixtyFour Therapeutics, an early-stage
biotech company developing therapies against autoimmune diseases.
He will combine that role with his contributions to Khondrion.
– Ends –
Contacts:
Khondrion BVProf. Dr. Jan
Smeitink, CEOE-mail: info@khondrion.com Tel:
+31-24-7635000www.khondrion.com
ICR Consilium
David Daley, Kris Lam
Email: khondrion@icrhealthcare.com
About KhondrionKhondrion is a
clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing therapies for
patients with m.3243A>G primary mitochondrial diseases. The
company’s lead asset, sonlicromanol, is a brain- penetrant,
reductive and oxidative distress modulator with anti-inflammatory
properties.
One of the most advanced disease-modifying drug
candidates for mitochondrial disease in development, sonlicromanol
has been tested in four clinical trials in patients with
m.3243A>G primary mitochondrial disease, as well as in the first
wave of a 6-month Phase 2 study in children with
genetically-confirmed primary mitochondrial diseases and who suffer
from motor symptoms. The compound has been granted orphan drug
designations for the treatment of MELAS, Leigh disease and patients
with maternally inherited diabetes and deafness (MIDD) in Europe,
and for all inherited mitochondrial respiratory chain disorders in
the US. It has also been granted a Rare Pediatric Disease
designation in the US for the treatment of MELAS. Sonlicromanol and
other compounds from Khondrion’s proprietary library have the
potential to be developed for a wide range of diseases and
conditions with the aim of benefiting patients whose daily lives
are severely impacted by mitochondrial impairment.
For more information visit
www.khondrion.com.
About mitochondrial disease
Mitochondrial disease occurs when mitochondria,
found within all cells of the human body and responsible for
producing the energy necessary for cells to function, are
defective. This can result in a wide range of serious and
debilitating illnesses occuring shortly after birth or later in
life. Signs and symptoms of these can include: cognitive problems,
learning disabilities, blindness, deafness, heart failure,
diabetes, fatigue, intolerance to exercise, muscle weakness and
gait problems, and stunted growth. Orphan diseases of the oxidative
phosphorylation system like Leigh disease, MELAS (mitochondrial
encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes)
spectrum disorders, MIDD (maternally inherited diabetes and
deafness), LHON (Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy) and other
respiratory chain/ oxidative phosphorylation disorders, are all
examples of mitochondrial disease.