ViroVet NV, a leading Belgian biopharmaceutical company,  announced that Dr George Gunn joined its board of directors.

Dr Gunn was CEO of Novartis Animal Health and a member of the global executive committee of Novartis until early 2015. Before joining Novartis in 2003, he worked with the UK's Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in the 1970s and 1980s and held various functions in the Animal Health Industry from head of Janssen Animal Health in the UK in 1996 up to president of Pharmacia Animal Health in the early 2000s. Dr George Gunn is also on the board of Nextvet, Phibro Animal Health, Diversigen and Nuritas. He received the Animal Pharm Lifetime Achievement Award earlier this week (link).

Dr Erwin Blomsma, co-founder and CEO of ViroVet: “I first met George in 2013 when I still worked at Okapi Sciences and entered into a license agreement with Novartis Animal Health. We were impressed with the dynamics of Novartis and have enjoyed the close collaboration with their team. When we started the preparations for ViroVet’s financing round, it was clear to us that the expertise and insight of George would be extremely valuable to the company as our products will potentially disrupt the animal health industry. We are honoured that George accepted to become our chairman.”

Dr George Gunn, founder and CEO of Stonehaven Consulting: “The vaccine technology platform ViroVet is developing together with the Leuven University has the potential to change how we design, produce and handle vaccines today and it is a pleasure for me to be able to witness and hopefully contribute to this story.”

ViroVet is a biopharmaceutical company with a clear objective to develop innovative technologies to improve the health and value of livestock. The company is headquartered in Heverlee near Leuven, Belgium and continues to build on the livestock assets and know-how that it has accumulated since 2008 while adding new products, including vaccines, to the pipeline.