Cristal Therapeutics announces appointment of Edwin Klumper as Chief Medical Officer
Maastricht, The Netherlands, April 28, 2016 – Cristal Therapeutics, a privately-held life sciences company developing novel nanomedicines against cancer and other diseases, by using its patented CriPec® platform, today announced the appointment of Edwin Klumper as Chief Medical Officer. He will be responsible for the clinical strategy and development of Cristal Therapeutics’ range of nanomedicines.
Edwin obtained an MD, MBA and a PhD degree in Medical Sciences and brings a wealth of knowhow in cancer research in the pharmaceutical industry during a career of over 25 years. As consultant and medical director he supervised over 80 oncology drug development programs and 20 clinical trials. As an employee of midsized and major pharma companies, he gained broad knowledge and expertise in clinical oncology development combining his solid scientific and business background.
Before joining Cristal Therapeutics, Dr. Klumper served as interim-CEO of Dutch SMS-oncology, which he co-founded in 2007. He acted as CMO since the inception of the company until 2013. Prior to SMS-oncology, he served at Nabi Biopharmaceuticals as Vice-President Marketing & Sales Europe, at Amgen as Business Unit Director for The Netherlands, for the UK and as Brand Director Europe, at ASTA Medica as Product Manager, and at start-up Yew Tree Pharmaceuticals as Medical Director. He obtained his PhD as cancer research scientist at VU Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Joost Holthuis, CEO of Cristal Therapeutics, said:
“We are extremely fortunate to have Edwin joining our leadership team. Edwin will no doubt contribute to the already firm nanomedicine programme of CriPec® docetaxel, as well as help us move forward in our efforts to develop novel proprietary nanomedicines.”
Ongoing clinical trial with CriPec® docetaxel
Cristal Therapeutics did start the phase I clinical study in July 2015 with its lead candidate CriPec® docetaxel in patients with solid tumours. For this trial, patients are being recruited in two clinical centres in The Netherlands and in Belgium. The first trial data will be available in the course of Q2 2016.
CriPec® docetaxel successfully passed various pre-clinical studies, demonstrating a significantly improved safety and tolerability profile. Current docetaxel-containing products often have limited efficacy, and prolongation of survival comes with a high incidence of adverse events. This imposes major limitations on the current therapy. CriPec® nanoparticles accumulate more preferentially in tumour tissue followed by sustained release, resulting in a significantly higher CriPec® docetaxel exposure of the tumour, thereby overcoming drawbacks of conventional docetaxel therapies.
