Genethon appoints biopharma industry expert Frédéric Revah as Chief Executive

Genethon, the not-for-profit biotherapy research centre created by the French Muscular Dystrophy Association (AFM) and funded with donations from the country’s annual Telethon, today announced the appointment of Frédéric Revah PhD as Chief Executive.

Généthon, the not-for-profit biotherapy research centre created by the French Muscular Dystrophy Association (AFM) and funded with donations from the country’s annual Telethon, today announced the appointment of Frédéric Revah PhD as Chief Executive.

Frédéric Revah brings over 20 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries and academic research to the job. Généthon will notably benefit from his acknowledged expertise in the management of therapeutic innovation. “Today, Généthon is one of the world’s benchmark labs for the development of innovative therapies for rare diseases, thanks to a unique, synergistic set of skills (ranging from research and clinical development to large-scale biomanufacturing) and exceptional support from the AFM and its donors. My goal is to pursue and accelerate this progress and deliver gene therapies to patients with rare diseases in general and neuromuscular diseases in particular”, stated Généthon’s new Chief Executive.

Immediately prior to joining Généthon in January 2010, Frédéric Revah had been Chief Executive Officer of the oncology start-up Sepal Pharma since 2008. Before that, he had served as Vice President, Drug Discovery, and Chief Scientific Officer Director at the NYSE Euronext-listed biotech company Cerep from 1999 to 2007 and Chief Executive Officer of its oncology subsidiary. At Cerep, Frédéric Revah had worldwide responsibility for the company’s R&D platform (250 researchers and technicians) and took several molecules into the clinic. Prior to his time at Cerep, Frédéric Revah was Head of the Gene Therapy Department in the Central Nervous System and Neurochemistry Department at Rhône Poulenc Rorer (now sanofi-aventis) from 1992 to 1998. Frédéric started his career as an associate staff researcher at the Pasteur Institute (from 1990 to 1992). He obtained his doctorate at the Pasteur Institute/University of Paris V in 1991 and is a graduate (1985) of the elite Ecole Polytechnique engineering school. Frédéric Revah has co-authored 35 scientific publications in prestigious international journals, including Nature, Nature Medicine, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA

Frédéric Revah has served as an advisor to several private- or public-sector organizations, including the French National Scientific Research Center’s laboratory evaluation committee (2001-2004) and the Scientific Advisory Board at Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners (until 2007).