Dr. Wolfgang Berthold joins Supervisory Board Merus
September 20, 2010
Utrecht, the Netherlands (September 20, 2010) – Dutch biopharmaceutical company Merus announced today that Dr. Wolfgang (Wolf) Berthold has joined its Supervisory Board. "We are delighted to appoint Wolf Berthold in Merus's Supervisory Board. He brings with him a wealth of industry and product development experience," says Gerard van Odijk, Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Merus. "The prospect of strengthening our Supervisory Board with professionals from our industry of such caliber and experience is very exciting. I look forward to working closely with Wolf to build on our therapeutic antibody development capabilities,” comments Ton Logtenberg, Chief Executive Officer at Merus. Dr. Berthold has built a distinguished track record in the pharmaceutical industry over the last 35 years. Currently, Dr. Berthold serves as the Chief Technology Officer and SVP Technical Development of Biogen Idec Inc. (BIIB). Throughout his entire career at Biogen Idec, Hoffmann La Roche and Boehringer Ingelheim, Wolf has worked on native and recombinant Interferons and numerous antibodies. In leading roles, he advanced the development and manufacturing of many biotech products such as Actilyse, PEGASYS, Zenapax, Roferon, Zevalin, Rituxan, and Tysabri. He also led the building of 2 large scale (‘6-pack’) manufacturing facilities, one in a 1984 joint venture with Genentech and Boehringer Ingelheim, the first of its kind in Europe, and one for IDEC in San Diego in 2001 (now owned by Genentech). Dr. Berthold has held numerous leadership positions in professional pharmaceutical and biotech societies in the United States and Europe including PhRMA (USA) and EFPIA (EU), as well as in the International Committee for Harmonization (ICH) biotech working group for biotech guidelines in the early 90’s. Formerly chairman, he is now Honorary Member of ESACT. Dr. Berthold received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of London, UK, in 1975 after undergraduate studies in Biochemistry and Medicine in Germany. About Merus (www.merus.nl) Merus is a privately-held biopharmaceutical company building a pipeline of innovative human therapeutic antibodies. By using its proprietary technology platforms that include novel transgenic mice (MeMo™), Merus aims to produce highly potent human antibody-based drugs for the treatment of cancer, infectious and inflammatory diseases, whether as full-length bispecific antibodies or as Oligoclonics™, which are mixtures of therapeutic human monoclonal antibodies produced by a single cell.