Cell Medica adds to senior management team

Cell Medica has expanded its senior management team, appointing Alain Pralong as head of manufacturing operations, and Stefanos Theoharis as head of pipeline strategy and corporate partnering.

Pralong (pictured right) will be responsible for the development and execution of the London and Houston-based firm's commercial supply strategy.

He brings extensive experience in biotechnology manufacturing to the role, having held senior leadership positions at Crucell, Merck, Roche and Schering-Plough.

Most recently, Pralong served as vice president for new product introduction and technical life cycle management at GlaxoSmithKline Vaccines in Belgium.

Meanwhile, Theoharis (pictured left) has been tasked with leading Cell Medica's pipeline development strategy and managing its strategic partnerships.

He joins the company from apceth GmbH, where he was chief business officer, responsible for its business development activities and project management.

Theoharis also brings experience from Antisense Pharma (now Isarna), Roche and Lazard, where he was a mergers and acquisitions analyst on its life sciences team.

Gregg Sando, chief executive officer of Cell Medica, said: “The appointments of Alain and Stefanos reflect the substantial progress of our current development programs and our plans to expand our product pipeline further.

“The addition of senior team members with big pharma experience … demonstrates the depth of management talent we are building within Cell Medica.”