24 April 2018
PureTech Health plc
PureTech Health Appoints Joep Muijrers as Chief Financial Officer
Life sciences veteran brings strong track record of portfolio management, M&A, partnerships, IPOs, equity financings, and capital finance
PureTech Health plc (LSE: PRTC) ("PureTech Health" or the "Company"), an advanced, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, is pleased to announce today the appointment of Joep Muijrers, as the Company's Chief Financial Officer after 11 successful years as a Partner and Portfolio Manager at LSP (Life Sciences Partners), a trans-Atlantic investor group with exclusive focus on life sciences, where he helped several companies become leaders in the biopharma industry and generated tremendous value for his firm's stakeholders. In his new role at PureTech Health, Dr Muijrers will be responsible for all aspects of the Company's finances, including capital markets strategy and execution, driving monetisation events for growth stage affiliates, strategic and financial planning, and financial reporting.
"We are delighted to have Joep join PureTech Health and bring his diverse experience in life sciences and impressive track record of significant value creation to our team as we enter this next important phase of our growth," said Daphne Zohar, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of PureTech Health.
"I have had the privilege of leading investments in a number of successful biotech companies, including those that were involved in some of the largest strategic transactions since the beginning of last year (Kite Pharma, Ablynx, CoLucid, Forward Pharma, NeuroDerm, and Juno Therapeutics). After a highly rewarding experience as an investor and investment banker, I am excited to be transitioning into an operating role," Dr Muijrers commented. "I am thrilled to join PureTech Health, one of the most exciting and unique biopharma companies I have come across in my career. I look forward to working with the seasoned team at the Company to help unlock the enormous value in the compelling internally-funded pipeline, as well as the exciting pipeline of affiliates."
Dr Muijrers joins PureTech Health with two decades of experience in corporate and capital finance, specifically focused on public market investment, M&A, portfolio management, strategic asset allocation, financial and regulatory reporting, and fundraising. In his previous role at LSP, Dr Muijrers was responsible for investing in publicly-traded life sciences companies, a strategy that generated a total return in excess of 900% during the past decade, more than twice the return of the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index during the same period. Prior to joining LSP, Dr Muijrers served as Director Corporate Finance and Capital Markets at Fortis Bank, currently part of ABN AMRO. Dr Muijrers holds a PhD degree in Molecular Biology from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and a Master's degree in Biochemistry from the University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
About PureTech Health
PureTech Health (PRTC.L) is an advanced, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel medicines targeting serious diseases that result from dysfunctions in the nervous, immune, and gastrointestinal systems (brain-immune-gut or the "BIG" axis), which together represent the adaptive human systems. PureTech Health is at the forefront of understanding and addressing the biological processes and crosstalk associated with the BIG axis. By harnessing this emerging field of human biology, PureTech Health is pioneering new categories of medicine with the potential to have great impact on people with serious diseases. PureTech Health is advancing a rich pipeline of innovative therapies that includes two pivotal stage programmes, multiple human proof-of-concept studies and a number of early clinical and pre-clinical programmes. PureTech's research and development pipeline has been advanced in collaboration with some of the world's leading scientific experts, who along with PureTech's team of biopharma pioneers, entrepreneurs and seasoned Board, identify, invent, and clinically de-risk new medicines. With this experienced team pursuing cutting edge science, PureTech Health is building the biopharma company of the future focused on improving and extending the lives of people with serious disease. For more information, visit www.puretechhealth.com or connect with us on Twitter @puretechh.
Forward Looking Statement
This press release contains statements that are or may be forward-looking statements, including statements that relate to PureTech's future prospects, developments and strategies. The forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance and achievements to differ materially from current expectations, including, but not limited to, those risks and uncertainties described in the risk factors included in the regulatory filings for PureTech Health. These forward-looking statements are based on assumptions regarding the present and future business strategies of the company and the environment in which it will operate in the future. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as at the date of this press release. Except as required by law and regulatory requirements, neither PureTech Health nor any other party intends to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Contact:
Investors |
EU media |
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Allison Mead Talbot +1 617 651 3156 amt@puretechhealth.com |
Ben Atwell, Rob Winder +44 (0) 20 3727 1000 ben.atwell@FTIconsulting.com |
Tom Donovan +1 857 559 3397 tom@tenbridgecommunications.com |