Immunicum has announced that Jeroen Rovers, M.D., Ph.D., has been appointed to the position of Chief Medical Officer (CMO).

Rovers transitions from his role as Managing Director of DCprime and continues to serve on Immunicum’s management team. Peter Suenaert, M.D., Ph.D., current CMO of Immunicum, will remain with the company as clinical advisor, continuing to support the clinical development team and ensuring a smooth transition process.

“Jeroen has over 20 years of experience in pioneering innovative cell therapies and late-stage drug development, which will be invaluable to Immunicum as we advance our expanded pipeline through the next phases of development,” says Sven Rohmann, former CEO of Immunicum.

Read more: Immunicum announces updated executive management team

CMO at DCprime

Rovers joined DCprime as Chief Medical Officer at the end of 2018 and has been serving as Managing Director for DCprime following the business combination with Immunicum in December of last year. Prior to DCprime, he was Chief Medical Officer at Kiadis, a company focused on developing cell-based immunotherapies. As part of the management team at Kiadis, he brought the company public through an IPO.

Before Kiadis, Rovers held Chief Medical Officer and senior clinical development positions at Ceronco Biosciences and Dutch biotechnology company Organon, prior to its acquisition by MSD.

Earlier in his career, he held senior positions at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and Biolitec Pharma. Rovers trained as a pharmaceutical physician at the European Center of Pharmaceutical Medicine in Basel, Switzerland; he obtained his M.D. and Ph.D. in Medicine from Leiden University, the Netherlands.

Photo of Jeroen Rovers (right): Immunicum