Team
Jan Ohrstrom
Chief Executive Officer
Jan Ohrstrom
Chief Executive OfficerSenior Executive with international experience in Biotechnology and Pharma. Management appointments in Large and Mid-Cap US/EU Biopharma companies (Novo Nordisk, ZymoGenetics inc). Proven track record with product approvals, financing, M&A and IPO at Nasdaq (ZGEN) and Euronext (BUP.PA). Incorporated ProFibrix Inc in 2008, and as CEO in 2013 led ProFibrix through $240Mill M&A with The Medicines Company after successful Phase 3 completion and approvals in EU and US. Chairman of the Board at Biomup SA, GTXmedical BV and Blaze Biosciences Inc. M.D from Univ of Copenhagen followed by six years surgical training. Dr Öhrström is a Danish citizen and resident in the Netherlands.
Jeffrey Lawson
Chief Scientific Officer
Jeffrey Lawson
Chief Scientific OfficerPaul Roos
Chief Financial Officer
Paul Roos
Chief Financial OfficerGed Short
Chief Medical Officer
Ged Short
Chief Medical OfficerGed has extensive clinical development experience, particularly in rare diseases and gene therapy, as well as an established track record of building and leading successful teams in clinical development and Medical affairs during over 20 years working in companies from big pharma to biotech start up.
Ged qualified in Medicine at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, now part of Imperial College, and after 8 years working in the NHS joined Lorex Synthelabo as a medical advisor on cardiovascular and psychiatry. When Sanofi acquired Synthelabo his role focussed on CNS therapeutics. He went on to join Pfizer to lead their UK CNS Medical Affairs team. Following this he joined Novartis UK where he worked on rheumatology and gastroenterology. He next joined global clincal development at Genzyme where he worked on an innovative treatment for hospital acquired infection before leading the global development team for an acute leukaemia medicine. Following the acquisition of Genzyme by Sanofi he led the global clinical development team for Pompe’s disease overseeing clinical development of the second generation Pompe disease ERT. As work completed establishing the phase 3 development plan for the second generation Pompe’s disease ERT he joined Freeline, a gene therapy start-up. During almost five years at Freeline he established the medical, clinical, regulatory, and PV functions led numerous regulatory and advisory board meetings and started two gene therapy clinical programmes in haemophilia B and Fabry’s disease whilst setting the foundations for future programmes.
In addition to his medical degree he has passed the MRCP, is a Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine and has an MBA from London Business School.
Arnoud Dijkstra
Chief Business Officer
Arnoud Dijkstra
Chief Business OfficerBo Persson
Senior Vice President, CMC Development & Project Management
Bo Persson
Senior Vice President, CMC Development & Project ManagementBo joined VarmX as head of CMC development in September of 2019. Bo has over 30 years of experience, spanning research from R&D to commercial manufacturing, both in the EU and US. Prior to joining VarmX, between 2011 and 2019, Bo was project director at Novo Nordisk A/S where he was responsible for the transfer of new biologics candidates from R&D into Product Supply. Before that, Bo was Senior Vice President at CMC Biologics A/S (now AGC Biologics), where he was responsible for management of the Copenhagen branch of the company.
Daniël Verhoef
Director of Research
Daniël Verhoef
Director of ResearchPieter Reitsma
Special Advisor and Founder
Pieter Reitsma
Special Advisor and FounderEmeritus professor Pieter Reitsma is a leading expert in coagulation and previous head of the department of Thrombosis and Hemostasis at LUMC. Pieter Reitsma has always worked at the interface of fundamental science and clinical applications. He is a translational scientist ‘avant la lettre’ who is among the very few to have brought drugs and diagnostic tests to the clinic. In the early stage of his career he did the experimental animal and in vitro work which was needed to bring the bisphosphonate APD to the clinic to successfully treat patients with destructive bone disease. Later he turned to the field of Hemostasis and Thrombosis where he made seminal contributions that made him world leader in the genetics of Hemostasis and Thrombosis. The test for factor V Leiden that he co-discovered is considered to be the most commonly performed genetic test in the world.