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Igyxos pursues its development and appoints Thierry Ziegler as CMC Chief Operating Officer
Nouzilly, March 4, 2021 – Igyxos, a biotechnology company specializing in the development of a new treatment for female and male infertility, today announces the appointment of Thierry Ziegler as Chief Operating Officer.
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Igyxos is developing a "First-In-Class" treatment, based on the use of monoclonal antibodies, to fight against female and male infertility. As part of its development, Igyxos strengthens its team with the recruitment of Thierry Ziegler.
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Thierry Ziegler will be in charge of the further development of the cell line being finalized with Selexis and implementing the antibody bioproduction strategy and the CMC development strategy in all pre-clinical and clinical stages.
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Thierry Ziegler has been working in the field of pharmaceutical biotechnology for more than 25 years: first as Process Development Manager at Merck at the Vevey (Switzerland) and Martillac (France) sites and then as Biopharmaceutical Development Manager at Sanofi at the Vitry Sur Seine site. In his last role, he was Production Director at Cellectis in charge of the provision of cell therapy products for the clinical trials of UCART in oncology and the supervision of the establishment of GMP workshops for the production of plasmids, mRNAs and viral vectors.
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His multiple professional experiences have allowed him to work on various formats of recombinant proteins from pre-clinical development to commercial.
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Thierry is a UTC engineer and holds a PhD in Bioengineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology (USA).
Infertility affects about 70 million women and 30 million men worldwide and is, in many cases, linked to hormonal imbalance. These hormones in charge of regulating the reproductive cycle are called gonadotropins. They are produced naturally by the pituitary gland (we then speak of endogenous gonadotropins), both in women, where they control the maturation of oocytes and the triggering of ovulation, and in men, where they regulate spermatogenesis.
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In case of dysfunction of the natural reproductive cycle, these gonadotropins can then be administered exogenously as a drug to treat infertility. They have been the reference treatment since the 1960s marking the beginning of ART (stimulation of ovulation with or without insemination).
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The current management of infertility remains unsatisfactory with still low success rates (only 50% of treated couples have a child after 4 cycles of hormonal treatments on average), protocols of medical treatments with gonadotropins considered heavy and expensive (several injections per week over a period of up to 2 years in men) and finally low compliance (30% of patients stop during treatment).
By developing a monoclonal antibody capable of potentiating the bioactivity of endogenous and exogenous gonadotropins, Igyxos aims to significantly improve the therapeutic management of men and women suffering from infertility.
Pierre-Henry Longeray, who joined the Company as CEO in 2019 after serving as Chief Executive Officer of Merck Biopharma France, said: "I am pleased to welcome Thierry Ziegler to Igyxos. He brings new skills and experience that consolidates the know-how of the current team."
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Marie-Christine Maurel, founder and CSO of Igyxos said: "This recruitment is a new step in the development of the treatment developed by Igyxos. We would also like to thank our investors for their trust, Go Capital, Sofimac Innovation and BPI France, who support and financially support our project."
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"I am very happy and excited to join Igyxos," says Thierry Ziegler, CMC's new Director of Development Operations, «and to contribute to innovation in the field of infertility treatments."
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About Igyxos
Igyxos’ mission is to develop new and innovative medical and pharmaceutical technologies in the field of human fertility. Igyxos is involved in all phases of development, from the discovery of promising targets to the identification of potential active compounds such as antibodies. The success of its €7.5 million Series A funding led by Bpifrance, through the FABS funds, alongside with Go Capital Amorçage II and Loire Valley Invest Funds managed by Go Capital and the Emergence Innovation II Fund managed by Sofimac Innovation, will allow Igyxos to develop its lead compound and reach clinical proof of concept. www.igyxos.com.
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Press Contacts:
Igyxos
Pierre-Henry Longeray
06 64 28 81 31
Marie-Christine Maurel
06 03 34 75 36
