Lyon, France, July 16, 2020 – MaaT Pharma announced today the appointment of Claude Bertrand, PharmD, PhD, as an independent member to the company’s Board of Directors and welcomes John Weinberg, MD, as new Chief Medical Officer. As an experienced executive in leading research and development efforts in senior positions at major international pharmaceutical companies such as Servier, Ipsen and AstraZeneca, Dr. Bertrand will provide his broad expertise in advancing novel therapeutics from discovery towards commercialization. Dr. Weinberg has over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and will use his expertise in microbiome-based therapeutic development and immunemodulation to oversee MaaT Pharma’s clinical activities and direct clinical development strategies.
“We are honored to add Dr. Bertrand to our Board, who brings with him decades of high-level leadership in pharmaceutical R&D, as we move towards late-stage development for our microbiome restoration therapeutics,” said Hervé Affagard, co-founder and CEO of MaaT Pharma. “We also welcome John Weinberg to our leadership team. John has a proven track record of guiding and managing clinical development programs for microbiome therapeutics which will be critical as we accelerate the development of MaaT013 and expand our portfolio with our capsule formulation, MaaT033.”
Dr. Bertrand commented on his appointment: “MaaT Pharma is pioneering an important approach to improving clinical outcomes in oncology through safe and effective microbiome-based biotherapeutics and has taken a leadership position in the rapidly evolving regulation and manufacturing of microbiome products. I look forward to working alongside my fellow board members to guide and support the development of the company and its exciting pipeline.”
Dr. Weinberg stated: “I am convinced of the therapeutic potential of MaaT Pharma’s approach to restore the balance between the patient and their microbiome, especially in diseases in which immune modulation plays a key role; therefore, I am very excited to join as the company is poised to expand its therapeutic focus beyond hematological cancer indications. My goal is to define an innovative clinical development program and contribute to the continued growth of the pipeline.”
Since 2017, Dr. Claude Betrand holds the position of Executive Vice President of R&D and Chief Scientific Officer at Servier, France’s largest independent pharmaceutical company, with a product portfolio addressing cardiovascular, immune-inflammatory and neuropsychiatric diseases, cancer and diabetes. Prior to this, he served as Executive Vice-President of R&D at Ipsen Pharma for over seven years and as Global Senior Vice President for Respiratory & Inflammation Research Area at AstraZeneca for more than five years. His career also includes senior positions at Novartis, Roche, and Pfizer. Dr. Bertrand studied pharmacy and obtained his PharmD and PhD from Strasbourg University in immuno-pharmacology and neurogenic inflammation.
Prior to joining MaaT Pharma, Dr. John Weinberg held the position of Chief Medical Officer at the microbiome-focused company 4D Pharma PLC, where he was responsible for building and managing the clinical development program and initiating multiple Phase I/II studies. With more than 25 years in the pharmaceutical industry, he has held various senior positions at Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Novartis Pharmaceuticals and Enzon Pharmaceuticals, gaining a breadth of international experience in clinical development of various oncology, hematology and transplantation therapeutics. Dr. Weinberg holds an MD from University of the Witwatersrand School of Medicine in Johannesburg, South Africa and an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.
About MaaT Pharma
MaaT Pharma, a clinical stage company, has established the most complete approach to restoring patientmicrobiome symbiosis to improve survival outcomes in life-threatening diseases. Committed to treating cancer and graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), a serious complication of allogeneic stem cell transplantation, MaaT Pharma has already achieved proof of concept in acute myeloid leukemia patients and a Phase 2 clinical trial in acute GvHD is ongoing. Supporting the further expansion of our pipeline into larger indications, we have built a powerful discovery and analysis platform, GutPrint®, to evaluate drug candidates, determine novel disease targets and identify biomarkers for microbiome-related conditions. Our therapeutics are produced through a standardized cGMP manufacturing and quality control process to safely deliver the full diversity of the microbiome. MaaT Pharma benefits from the commitment of world-leading scientists and established relationships with regulators to spearhead microbiome treatment integration into clinical practice.