arGEN-X, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of human monoclonal antibodies from its proprietary SIMPLE Antibody platform, has appointed Alain Thibault as Chief Medical Officer and Jacobus (Koos) Rasser, PhD, JD as IP Counsel.

Prior to joining arGEN-X, Dr Alain Thibault was therapeutic area head of oncology at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals where he was responsible for clinical development, product strategy and portfolio management, as well as coordination of the collaboration with Sanofi to develop fully human antibody products for multiple cancer indications. While at Regeneron, he led the clinical development of VEGF Trap (aflibercept) as well as the fully human antibody products REGN 421 and REGN 910. He has extensive clinical development expertise across all stages of biopharmaceutical clinical development, having previously held senior research positions at Johnson & Johnson and Hoffman-La Roche before joining Regeneron.

Before joining arGEN-X, Dr Koos Rasser PhD, JD was senior partner at the global IP law firm Howrey LLP and founded its London practice. Among his clients in the pharma/biotech field were Biogen Idec, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Eppendorf, Schering Plough and Amersham. He also acted as interim IP Director at Akzo Nobel's Organon Division. Prior to his tenure at Howrey, Dr. Rasser was head of the global IP organization at Procter & Gamble, where he was responsible for a portfolio of more than 2,000 patent families protecting over a dozen billion-dollar brands.

Welcoming Alain and Koos to the Company, Tim Van Hauwermeiren, chief executive officer at arGEN-X said: “We are delighted to have attracted such high caliber individuals as Alain and Koos to arGEN-X at such an exciting time in our evolution. 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.”

arGEN-X is a preclinical stage biopharmaceutical company that is rapidly leveraging the power of its broadly applicable, proprietary SIMPLE Antibody platform to generate fully human antibodies with differentiated qualities and outstanding therapeutic potential.