SAGA Diagnostics has announced the appointment of four people to significantly strengthen SAGA’s team.

The new team members are Annina Hube, PhD MBA, as Director of Market Access, Rocco Crescenzo, MD, as Chief Medical Officer, and Maria Fe Paz, MD PhD MBA, and Florian Eckhardt, PhD MBA, as Strategic Advisors.

“We are extremely pleased to add such strength to our fast-growing team. Annina, Rocco, Maria, and Florian join at just the right moment, with expertise and experience that are instrumental for our ambitious expansion plans in this next phase of SAGA,” says Lao Saal, co-founder and CEO, SAGA Diagnostics.

Annina Hube

Dr. Hube brings an in-depth knowledge from both the regulatory and market aspects of IVDs, especially in the NGS and liquid biopsy fields. Prior to joining SAGA, Annina served in BD, supply chain, logistics, and marketing roles for four years at NEO New Oncology GmbH.  Previously, Annina has also held senior marketing positions at both Abcam in Cambridge, UK, and Vela Diagnostics in Hamburg, Germany.Her main responsibility at SAGA will be to direct the market access activities in the European market.

Rocco Crescenzo

Dr. Crescenzo is an experienced medical officer, having served in global clinical and regulatory leadership roles in the US and UK at Pfizer, Novartis, and GlaxoSmithKline, where he helped to advance a number of clinical programs in oncology.  He is licensed in the UK and USA, board certified in internal medicine and medical oncology, and was formerly the co-director of the Temple University Cancer Center.  Rocco will be responsible for SAGA’s clinical development program including the launch of new clinical trials.

Maria Fe Paz

Dr. Fe Paz joins SAGA with over 15 years of outstanding technical, entrepreneurial, and leadership experience in molecular diagnostics and precision medicine.  She is President and CMO of Inflection Point Biomedical Advisors, General Partner of Article25 Capital, and the former CMO for Rosetta Genomics.  For more than 5 years, she also was founder and president of Labceutics and CMO for the Diaceutics Group.  Maria will support SAGA in strategic decisions relating to clinical trials and commercial expansion.

Florian Eckhardt

Dr. Eckhardt is seasoned executive in medical diagnostics, since 2003 having worked in senior management and BD roles at companies such as Epigenomics AG, and ThermoFisher Scientific, as well as being the CEO of DST Diagnostische und Technologien GmbH from 2013-2018.  He is also a senior investment director at Hadean Ventures, and previously was an investment manager at Inventages.  Florian will support SAGA in strategic analyses relating to commercial partnering and entering new markets.

In the photo: Dr Crescenzo, Dr Fe Paz, Dr Eckhardt and Dr Hube. Credit: SAGA Diagnostics