Artica Therapeutics appoints Piet Wigerinck to its board of directors
Artica Therapeutics B.V. (Artica), a biotechnology company developing a pipeline of covalent small molecules for autoimmune and inflammatory disorders, today announced that industry veteran Piet Wigerinck PhD is joining the board as an independent non-executive director. Dr Wigerinck is a seasoned executive with over three decades of R&D experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector and deep expertise in the autoimmunity space.
“We are delighted to welcome Piet to the Artica board”, said Tjeerd Barf, CEO of Artica . “We believethat Piet’s extensive drug development expertise and network will help to execute on Artica’s strategyand expedite our innovative approach to treating inflammatory and autoimmune disorders”.Dr Wigerinck commenting on his appointment said “I am excited to join the Board of Artica and sharemy expertise and commitment to Artica’s mission to create the next generation of autoimmunetherapies using their innovative covalent binding technology”.Dr Piet Wigerinck is a pharmacist and holds a PhD in medicinal chemistry from the KU Leuven. He hasover 30 years of R&D experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. Piet has been akey driver of the research and development programs of 4 approved medicines: PrezistaTM, OlysioTM,JyselecaTM, and RekambysTM. He started his career in industry at the Janssen Research labs in Beerse(1988-1998), moved to Tibotec-Virco, where he was Vice President, Drug Discovery, Early Developmentand CM&C (1998-2008). He then moved to Galapagos (2008-2021) finishing his Ɵme there as ChiefScientific Officer. Under his leadership, Galapagos built a pipeline of first-in-class medicines that drovethe growth of the company to a top European biotech player. He has been responsible for all aspectsof drug discovery, preclinical research, CMC, phase 1 and phase 2 clinical trials.Piet is the scientific co-founder of Xinvento, a Dutch biotech, that was acquired by RhythmPharmaceuticas in 2023. He is Chief Scientific Advisor at Fibrocor Therapeutics, and independent boardmember of Ipsen SA, miDiagnostics N.V., Atriva Therapeutics GmbH, and Symeres Netherlands B.V.
About Artica Therapeutics
Artica Therapeutics B.V. is dedicated to developing novel small molecule medicines for inflammatoryand autoimmune indications. Artica is at the forefront of covalent binding technology as well as in label free cellular-based screening approaches. The unique combination of these capabilities allows rapidprogression of the best drug candidates that have unprecedented and superior characteristics, creaatingnovel and highly selective therapies for patients with unmet medical need. Artica raised a €12M seedfinancing round in November 2023 from BioGeneration Ventures (BGV), Thuja Capital, Seroba, andInnovationQuarter.
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