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Yves Champey is a physician by training. Genethon will benefit from hisinternational experience with responsibility for the development of new drugswithin major pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and Rhone-Poulenc Rorer.Also, he contributed to the creation of the Drug for Neglected DiseasesInitiative (DNDi) - of which he was president from 2003 to 2007. The DNDi isa foundation dedicated to the research and development of new drugs againstneglected parasite diseases affecting poor populations. Finally, with PierreTambourin, he has been deeply involved in the development of Genopole(R)Evry, and is president of the board of directors of the pre-seed fund G1JIle-de-France.
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"I will be placing all my experience at the service of the AFM andGenethon," declares Yves Champey, "with 3 objectives: successfullyimplementing the clinical trials programs, reinforcing the position ofGenethon as a not-for-profit entity of research and development, anddeveloping the innovative biotherapies for the treatment of rare diseases. Myambition is also to open the way to substantial joint projects with thepharmaceutical and biotechnological industries and to develop those thatalready exist with public research organisations."
President of the AFM (French Muscular Dystrophy Association) from 1981 to2001, Bernard Barataud is the father of three children, one of whom died fromDuchenne myopathy in 1986 at the age of sixteen. Co-founder of the FrenchTelethon in 1987, he was also the founder of Genethon in 1990 with the NobelPrize winner Jean Dausset. As early as 1992 Genethon supplied theinternational scientific community with the first maps of the human genome.This considerably accelerated its deciphering and the discovery of the genesresponsible for diseases. It is this progress which has led to innovativetherapies based on knowledge of genes, therapies which are now undergoingclinical trials. Eighteen years after its creation, Genethon is today anot-for-profit biotechnology enterprise whose aim is to develop biotherapiesfor rare genetic diseases. Genethon is the promoter of the first gene therapytrial in humans for gamma-sarcoglycan deficiency. It possesses two clinicalbatch production units for vectors and is engaged in the development of apre-industrial scale BMP production site to go onstream in 2010.http://www.genethon.com
SOURCE Genethon and AFM (French Muscular Dystrophy Association)
