5 June 2020

Swiss Rockets AG has assembled an Advisory Committee of renowned Oncology scientists to help it develop new cancer treatments

Inspired by cancer patients and dedicated to their well-being, Swiss Rockets provides access to innovative anti-cancer treatments. Internationally recognized experts of the Oncology Advisory Committee accelerate and secure drug discovery programs as well as advise and lead clinical development of the most promising technologies.

Prof. Dr. med. Alex A. Adjei

Chairman of Oncology Advisory Committee

Prof. Alex A. Adjei is an accomplished researcher in the field of experimental therapeutics and clinical drug development. He is a Professor of Oncology and a Professor of Pharmacology in the Mayo College of Medicine (Rochester, USA) as well as a consultant in Medical Oncology at Mayo Clinic. Prof. Adjei is a Director of the Early Cancer Therapeutics Program and leads the Lung Cancer Program across all Mayo Clinic campuses in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota. Prof. Adjei is co-chair of the Thoracic Malignancies Steering Committee as well as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology. He received the first American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Drug Development Research Professorship 2012-2017, in recognition of his mentorship and his work in cancer drug development. In 2018, Prof. Adjei was recognized by ASCO for his extraordinary volunteer service, dedication, and commitment. He served on several National Cancer Institute Committees and is an author of 260 scientific publications.

Prof. Dr. med. Solange Peters

Vice-Chairman of Oncology Advisory Committee

Prof. Solange Peters is an experienced scientist whose main fields of research include discovery and validation in preclinical/clinical settings of new biomarkers for thoracic cancers, as well as targeted therapy and immunotherapy. Prof. Peters runs the Thoracic Malignancies Program and the Medical Oncology Service in the Department of Oncology at the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) in Switzerland and manages the organization and coordination of clinical trials. She acts as the scientific coordinator and member of the Foundation Council of the European Thoracic Oncology Platform (ETOP). Prof. Peters is a referee for numerous scientific journals and serves as a grant reviewer for the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF), Swiss Cancer League Grants and many others. She is the author of more than 200 peer-reviewed journal publications, book chapters and book editions. In 2014, Solange received the Prize of the Faculty of Biology and Medicine of Lausanne for her excellence in clinical research. Prof. Peters is the youngest ever President of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) for the 2020-2021 term.

Prof. Dr. med. Richard Herrmann

Member of Oncology Advisory Committee

Prof. Richard Herrmann is a leading expert in Oncology with extensive experience in cancer clinical trials methodology in Phases I–III. He is Professor of Oncology at the University of Basel and former Head of the Division of Oncology and the Department of Clinical Research at the University Hospital Basel. During his career, Prof. Herrmann headed various national oncology societies and study groups as President of the Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research and President of OncoSuisse. In 2009, he became Vice-President of the Cancer Research Switzerland Foundation. Besides that, Prof. Herrmann has remarkable 20 years of experience (1991-2011) as a Head of the Division of Oncology at the University Hospital Basel. Prof. Herrmann is the winner of several scientific awards, honorary member in the Scientific Association of Swiss Radiation Oncologists, the Hungarian Society of Medical Oncology and the German Society of Haematology and Medical Oncology as well as an elected personal member of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences. He is an author of more than 300 scientific publications.

Prof. Dr. med. Jean-Yves Blay

Member of Oncology Advisory Committee

Prof. Jean-Yves Blay is a well-known scientist and a medical oncologist whose main research interests focus on clinical and basic research in sarcomas. Dr. Blay is a General Director of the Centre Leon Bérard, the Comprehensive Cancer of Lyon, France, as well as a Professor of Medicine at the Université Claude Bernard. He serves as a President of the French Federation of Cancer Centres “Unicancer” and as a President of the French Sarcoma Group. In 2016, Prof. Blay was designated by the EU Commission to be a Network Director of ERN-EURACAN to improve the quality of care for patients with rare cancers in the European Union. He has co-authored over 1000 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and was distinguished as a Highly Cited Researcher in 2019. He advises various national and international institutions and research organizations and is an active member of several oncology scientific organizations and societies, such as ESMO, CTOS, ASCO, and AACR. Besides, Prof. Blay is a winner of several scientific awards.

Prof. Dr. med. Filip Janku

Member of Oncology Advisory Committee

Prof. Filip Janku is a competent and experienced scientist whose research interests focus on proof-of-concept clinical trials, molecular profiling of cell-free DNA and therapeutic use of oncolytic bacteria. Prof. Janku serves as an Associate Professor and medical oncologist in the Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics (Phase I Program) at MD Anderson Cancer Center in the US. In 2018, he became a Center Medical Director in the Clinical and Translational Research Center at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Prof. Janku is the principal investigator for numerous phase I trials, most of which study novel targeted agents. He was involved in multiple clinical trials, initiated by pharma giants Roche and Novartis. Prof. Janku is a winner of several Research Grants and received numerous awards for his research achievements, including the Sidney Kimmel Scholar award. He is the author of 218 articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Prof. Dr. med. Semir Beslija

Member of Oncology Advisory Committee

Prof. Semir Beslija is a well-recognized oncologist whose interests specifically target breast cancer treatments. Currently he is working as a Head of the Oncology Division at the University Clinical Center Sarajevo and as Professor at the Department of Oncology of the University of Sarajevo, School of Medicine. He is a member of several professional associations including the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO). In addition, Dr. Beslija is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Central European Cooperative Oncology Group. He is an author and co-author of more than 50 scientific publications and a visiting lecturer of the European Institute of Oncology in Milan and Austrian Oncology Academy. Besides, Dr. Beslija is a member of the editorial board of the MEMO magazine (Magazine of European Medical Oncology).

About Swiss Rockets AG

Swiss Rockets AG, founded in 2018, is implementing a paradigm shift in healthcare. Cancer patients will benefit from new treatments which will be developed using innovative and disruptive methods. The Swiss-Rockets team combines the necessary specialist knowledge and experience to efficiently and sustainably break new ground in cancer medicine. In the current situation, Swiss Rockets AG devotes all the forces to fight the COVID-19 spread worldwide.

Founder and CEO of Swiss Rockets is Dr. Vladimir Cmiljanovic, a medicinal chemist with more than 15 years’ experience in the development of cancer drugs. Together with his sister Dr. Natasa Cmiljanovic, co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Swiss Rockets, he developed oncology drugs at the University of Basel and subsequently founded and successfully led several biotech companies. Manuel Ebner, Strategic Advisor of Swiss Rockets and CEO Switzerland at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Dr. Thomas Sander, Scientific Advisor and one of the first employees of the biotech company Actelion, are co-founders of Swiss Rockets AG.

The Board of Directors of Swiss Rockets AG is chaired by Vladimir Cmiljanovic, a successful entrepreneur and the founder of Swiss biotech companies PIQUR and TargImmune. Other board members are: Prof. Dr. Michael N. Hall, a renowned researcher, and Professor at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel; Natasa Cmiljanovic, a medicinal chemist and clinical scientist with wide experience in oncology drug development; Thomas Ladner, a business lawyer, founder or co-founder of several successful start-ups and the WORLD.MINDS Foundation; André Debrunner, a financial expert and fund manager at Northern Trust Corporation Switzerland.

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