Alain Thibault joins Argen-X as chief medical officer

Netherlands-based preclinical biotech Argen-X has made two senior appointments, hiring former head of oncology at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Dr Alain Thibault as chief medical officer and Dr Jacobus (Koos) Rasser as IP counsel.

Thibault will lead research efforts at the company, which is focused on developing antibodies as treatments in several therapeutic areas and has an alliance with Shire to investigate new treatments for rare diseases.

At Regeneron, Thibault gained experience in clinical development, product strategy and portfolio management, and led clinical development of eye disease treatment VEGF Trap (aflibercept), which was developed in partnership with Sanofi.

He also led research into the fully human antibody products REGN 421 and REGN 910.

Prior to joining Regeneron, Thibault held senior research positions at Johnson & Johnson and Hoffman-La Roche before joining Regeneron.

Rasser joins Argen-X from global IP law firm Howrey LLP. While at Howrey, his pharma clients included Biogen Idec, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Eppendorf, Schering Plough and Amersham.

His previous roles include serving as head of the global IP organisation at Procter & Gamble, where he was responsible for a portfolio of more than 2,000 patent families.

Tim Van Hauwermeiren, CEO at Argen-X, said: "As the quality and productivity of our Simple Antibody platform translates consistently into clinical development opportunities and valuable new intellectual property, their expertise will be fundamental to attaining our ambitious business goals and reaching our next value inflection point as a company."