Phoenix Solutions AS Strengthens Its Board With the Appointment of Dr. Jean-Michel Cosséry

OSLO, Norway, December 4, 2019 (Newswire.com) - ​​​​​​​​​​Phoenix Solutions AS, a clinical-stage biotech company, today announced the appointment of Dr. Jean-Michel Cosséry to its Board of Directors. 

“We are very pleased to welcome Dr. Jean-Michel Cosséry to the Board of Phoenix,” says Dr. Per Sontum, CEO of Phoenix. “Jean-Michel has a unique combination of experience spanning across diagnostics and therapeutics, with global leadership roles within research, marketing and commercialization in leading healthcare organizations. His knowledge of the field of oncology will be invaluable to Phoenix and we look forward to Jean-Michel’s contribution to the strategic, clinical and commercial development of our proprietary Acoustic Cluster Therapy technology (ACT®).”

Jean-Michel comments, “I am delighted to join the Board of Phoenix at the stage when the company has already taken its first steps into clinical development within oncology. Within this field, there is a range of unmet clinical needs and I believe increased, localized delivery of cytotoxic drugs can make a significant difference in many of these. I also see great potential for ACT® in the treatment of local pathologies within a range of other therapeutic areas.”

About Dr. Jean-Michel Cosséry 

Jean-Michel is a senior healthcare executive with global leadership experience in research, marketing and commercial roles within med-tech and pharmaceuticals in six countries. Jean-Michel worked in Novartis and Serono before joining GE Healthcare (“GHEC”) as the Chief Marketing Officer and Vice-President Global Marketing. He represented GEHC at the GE Commercial Council and he was a member of the board for the Wipro-GE Healthcare joint venture in India.

More recently, Jean-Michel was with Eli-Lilly acting as Vice-President, North American Oncology, as well as Managing Director Northern Europe (including the U.K. and Ireland). Externally, Jean-Michel represented Lilly in the CEO Forum in Washington, D.C., was a board member of the ABPI and the Chairman of the Board of the American Pharmaceutical Group.

Today, Jean-Michel serves as a Non-Executive Director on the boards of Malin Corporation plc, Kymab Ltd and Immunocore Ltd. 

Jean-Michel holds an MBA from the Rotterdam School of Management (Erasmus University), The Netherlands. He received his Ph.D. with honors in Nuclear Chemistry and Neurobiology from University Paris, France, and conducted post-doctoral research in Neuropharmacology at the NIH in the United States. Additionally, he holds a Pharm D with honors in Pharmacology from the University of Paris.

About Phoenix Solutions AS

Phoenix Solutions is a clinical-stage Norwegian biotech company spun out of GE Healthcare in 2012, currently developing a technology platform for targeted drug delivery – Acoustic Cluster Therapy (ACT®). ACT® is a unique approach to ultrasound-mediated, targeted drug delivery – capable of enhancing significantly the clinical utility of a wide range of therapeutic molecules and nano-drugs for a wide range of clinical indications. Its primary mode of action is in defeating the vascular barrier, enhancing extravasation, distribution and uptake of drug in the targeted tissue, thereby increasing efficacy and/or reducing toxicity.

ACT® is generally indicated towards diseases where current clinical practice treats known, localized pathologies (e.g., solid tumors) with medicinal therapy, and where Standard of Care is being limited from an inability to deliver sufficiently high concentrations of drug without excessive systemic toxicity. 

ACT® has shown extremely promising results in a series of pre-clinical evaluations, including treatment of colon, breast, pancreatic and prostate cancers, with a wide range of cytotoxic drugs. Phoenix is currently pursuing pre-clinical development exploring synergies between ACT® and immune-oncology drugs as well as within other medicinal segments such as CNS and infectious diseases.

Phoenix is currently in clinical development within the oncology segment at The Royal Marsden Hospital (U.K.). In their First in Man “ACTivate”-trial (NCT04021277), ACT® is investigated in combination with Standard of Care chemotherapies for treatment of hepatic metastases associated with colorectal and pancreatic cancers.