Pharvaris is a late-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on advancing oral investigational therapies for people living with bradykinin-mediated angioedema. By targeting a clinically-validated pathway in hereditary angioedema (HAE), we are developing orally administered bradykinin B2 receptor antagonists designed to help address significant unmet needs and expand treatment options for people living with bradykinin-mediated angioedema.
Pharvaris is an international company, headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, with offices in Leiden, the Netherlands, and Lexington, Massachusetts.
By leveraging our expertise in HAE, we aim to help address unmet needs by delivering therapies with the potential to combine injectable-like efficacy™ with a well-tolerated profile and the convenience of oral administration.
Founded in 2016, Pharvaris has a rich history in the rare disease space, with expertise in hereditary angioedema. Today, our team continues to grow, and our dedication to the bradykinin-mediated community grows with it.
Mr. Modig co-founded Pharvaris and has served as Chief Executive Officer since its inception. Mr. Modig is also a director of the Company. Prior to co-founding the Company, Mr. Modig served as Chief Financial Officer of Prosensa Holding N.V., a biopharmaceutical company focusing on novel RNA modulating treatments for rare diseases like Duchenne muscular dystrophy, from March 2010 through its IPO on the Nasdaq in 2013 until its acquisition by BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. in January 2015.
From October 2003 to November 2008, Mr. Modig was Chief Financial Officer at Jerini AG through its IPO on the Frankfurt exchange in 2005 and sale to Shire plc in 2008. Jerini developed and launched icatibant for the treatment of HAE, now currently marketed by Takeda Pharmaceuticals under the FIRAZYR brand name. Before Jerini AG, Mr. Modig served as Chief Financial Officer at Surplex AG from 2001 to 2003 and as Finance Director Europe of U.S.-based Hayward Industrial Products Inc. from 1999 to 2001. In previous positions, Mr. Modig was a Partner in the Brussels-based private equity firm Agra Industria from 1994 to 1999 and a Senior Manager in the Financial Services Industry Group of Price Waterhouse LLP in New York from 1991 to 1994.
Dr. Abele joined Pharvaris in November 2023 and currently serves as Chief Technical Operations Officer. In this role, he is responsible for all chemistry, manufacturing, and controls (CMC) activities, global supply chain, global project management, patent governance, and IT/Business Information Systems as Pharvaris progresses into late-stage clinical development and preparing for launch. Dr. Abele joined Pharvaris with more than 25 years of experience in process development, end-to-end Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) supply chain, cross-functional CMC activities, GMP manufacturing, global vendor management, and people leadership.
Previously, Dr. Abele served as the Senior Vice President, Chemical Development and Commercial Manufacturing at Idorsia Pharmaceuticals, where he and his team were responsible for the API development and manufacturing of QUVIVIQ (daridorexant), PIVLAZ (clazosentan), and aprocitentan. Prior to Idorsia, Dr. Abele worked at Actelion Pharmaceuticals where he established and grew the fully integrated Chemistry Process R&D department. Earlier, he held positions of growing responsibility at Carbogen-Amcis, including as Head of Production and as a manager of teams in R&D and GMP manufacturing of APIs for global pharma companies. Dr. Abele holds a Diploma in Chemistry from the University of Konstanz and a Ph.D. in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from the ETH Zurich.
Dr. Anne Lesage is Chief Early Development Officer at Pharvaris. Dr. Lesage is a co-founder of Pharvaris and has led the translational science, preclinical and non-clinical development since its inception. Dr. Lesage has over 30 years’ experience in drug discovery, preclinical, and early development.
From 1992 until 2010, Dr. Lesage held different leadership positions with increasing responsibility in the neuroscience drug discovery unit at Johnson & Johnson. By 2005, Dr. Lesage served as the biology head of psychiatry.
Dr. Lesage is an inventor on 10 patents and an author of 46 publications. Dr. Lesage founded GrayMatters Consulting in 2010 and advises early and late-stage biotech companies, venture capital organizations, and government agencies and initiatives. In 2013, Dr. Lesage co-founded Kosa Pharma.
Dr. Lesage is trained as a biochemist and holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology. Dr. Lesage studied biochemistry at the University of Ghent, received her Ph.D. in the group of Professor Walter Fiers, and was a post-doctoral fellow in the Child Psychiatry department of Stanford University Medical School and in the CNRS Laboratory of Viral Oncology of Hospital Paul Brousse in Paris.
Dr. Lu joined the Company in 2020, bringing 15 years of protein therapeutics and small molecule drug development experience including within genetic rare diseases. Previously, Dr. Lu served as the Vice President, Global Program Lead for rare diseases at Takeda (via acquisition of Shire). During Dr. Lu’s time at Takeda/Shire, she was instrumental in leading project teams that successfully completed two Phase 3 pivotal HAE studies and achieved global approval of TAKHZYRO (lanadelumab-flyo) for the prevention of HAE attacks in the U.S., EU, and the rest of world. In addition, she has also led the life-cycle management of TAKHZYRO beyond HAE, looking to broaden indications in other plasma-kallikrein-mediated diseases.
Prior to Takeda/Shire, Dr. Lu held roles in clinical development, translational research and clinical pharmacology with increasing levels of responsibility at AbbVie and Roche/Genentech, where she was responsible for the design and implementation of early and late development clinical strategy across a broad range of indications including autoimmune, respiratory, and genetic diseases leading to multiple approvals. Dr. Lu received her medical degree from Beijing Medical University and Ph.D. from The University of Texas, Austin, in systems biology.
Mr. Nassif joined Pharvaris in 2024, bringing more than 30 years of life sciences industry experience in executive financial management roles in development-stage, commercial-stage, public and private companies.
Mr. Nassif served as Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and Board Member of at Sio Gene Therapies, where he was responsible for all finance, accounting, tax, treasury, legal, and SEC compliance and reporting activities until February 2022, when he undertook the liquidation and dissolution of the company. Prior to joining Sio, Mr. Nassif was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of SteadyMed Therapeutics, where he was instrumental in its acquisition by United Therapeutics in August 2018. From 2011 to 2014, Mr. Nassif served as the President and Chief Financial Officer of Histogen. Previously, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Zogenix and held several key roles at Amphastar Pharmaceuticals and RealAge Inc. Earlier in his career, Mr. Nassif held various positions with Cypros Pharmaceuticals, where he was instrumental in leading its merger with Ribogene, Inc. to form Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
He holds a BS in finance and management information systems with honors from the University of Virginia and a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Dr. Souverijns joined the Company in July 2021 with over 25 years of experience in pharmaceutical portfolio strategic and operational leadership at ObsEva, Celgene, and Amgen.
Dr. Souverijns joined the Company from his most recent position as the Chief Commercial Officer at ObsEva where he was responsible for the commercialization of its women’s health product portfolio. Prior to joining ObsEva, he spent 11 years at Celgene where he contributed to the successful build out of the product portfolio in diverse strategic and operational leadership roles. He developed a broad pharmaceutical background through various international assignments at PwC Consulting and in different market access roles at Amgen, both at the European and global level. Dr. Souverijns holds a degree in bio-engineering from the KU Leuven, Belgium, and obtained a Ph.D. from the same institute.
Ms. Nijdam joined the Company in 2020, with over 12 years’ experience in the financial industry as a chartered accountant. From 2008 until 2020, Ms. Nijdam worked in the Assurance Services group at Ernst & Young Accountants LLP in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, where she held various leadership positions, including most recently serving as a Senior Manager. Ms. Nijdam is treasurer at the Entrepreneurs Foundation and previously served as member of the Associations Audit Committee of Hockey Club Rotterdam and as a member of the supervisory board of Access to Seeds foundation. Ms. Nijdam holds a master’s in economics from the Erasmus University of Rotterdam and a Register Accountant title (Dutch Certified Public Accountant) from Nivra Nyenrode in the Netherlands.
Dr. Knolle is a strategic advisor to the CEO and Executive Committee of Pharvaris, after co-founding the company and serving as Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Operating Officer from its inception to the end of 2023. Dr. Knolle’s experience spans 40 years in the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Knolle is named as an author of many publications and as an inventor for many patents, including the approved therapeutics Quinapril, a marketed ACE inhibitor, and icatibant.
From 1978 to 1998, Dr. Knolle worked in several functions in the central pharmaceutical research unit of Hoechst AG and Hoechst-Marion-Roussel (HMR). In 1998, Dr. Knolle left HMR to join Axys Pharmaceuticals (now Celera) in San Francisco, where he served as VP for Medicinal Chemistry and structural biology. From 2001 to 2008, Dr. Knolle was the Chief Scientific Officer and Head of R&D in the management board of Jerini AG in Berlin, Germany. In 2008, Dr. Knolle left the management of Jerini AG and established JCK Consult.
In addition to his consultancy activities, Dr. Knolle acts as a board member for Thermosome. He co-founded Kosa Pharma and 3B Pharmaceuticals and has been a board member for the Charité Research Organisation GmbH and a Senior Advisor for Kurma Partners. Dr. Knolle studied chemistry in Göttingen and Münster. After a post-doc in the laboratory of the Nobel Laureate E.J. Corey at Harvard University, he joined the pharmaceutical unit of Hoechst AG in 1978.
Dr. Meeker has been a director since January 2021. Dr. Meeker is the Chairman of the Board of Directors, President and Chief Executive Officer of Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Prior to joining Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Meeker served as President and Chief Executive Officer of KSQ Therapeutics, Inc. from 2017 to 2020. Prior to joining KSQ, Dr. Meeker worked at Sanofi Genzyme from 2011 to 2017, in a variety of roles, including as President and Chief Executive Officer of Genzyme, a Sanofi Company, as a member of Sanofi’s Executive Committee, and as Executive Vice President and Head of Sanofi Genzyme, Sanofi’s specialty care unit with responsibility for rare diseases, multiple sclerosis, oncology and immunology franchises. Prior to joining Genzyme, Dr. Meeker was Director of the Pulmonary Critical Care Fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Meeker has served as Chair of Trevi Therapeutics since 2017. He also served as a Director of MyoKardia, Inc. until its acquisition by Bristol Myers Squibb.
Dr. Meeker holds a medical degree from the University of Vermont Medical School and completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 2000.
Dr. Bjӧrk has been a director since December 2021. Dr. Bjӧrk was Senior Vice President, Late-stage Development, Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolism (CVRM), BioPharmaceuticals R&D at AstraZeneca and led the global development of medicines within this area for over 10 years. Throughout her career at AstraZeneca which began in 2002, she has gained broad drug development experience covering clinical development phase I-IV, large outcomes programs, major global filings and health authority interactions, and commercial strategy/implementation. Dr. Bjӧrk is an endocrinologist by training and an associate professor of medicine at Uppsala University, Sweden. She is also a board member of Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Vicore Pharma AB, Camurus AB, Betula Consulting AB, and NodThera.
Dr. Glassman is an industry veteran with nearly 30 years of healthcare leadership and investment experience. Most recently, he was a venture partner in public equity at OrbiMed Advisors, returning to the firm after serving as a private equity partner. Previously, he worked as a senior investment banking professional for over seventeen years across Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, most recently serving as Vice Chairman of the Global Health Care Investment Banking division at Credit Suisse. Earlier in his career, Dr. Glassman oversaw healthcare investments at Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity and was a consultant within McKinsey & Company’s Pharmaceutical and Medical Products practice. Dr. Glassman was a board-certified hematologist-oncologist and remains on the faculty of Weill Cornell as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine. He also spent several years as a basic science investigator at Rockefeller University in the laboratory of Hidesaburo Hanafusa, where he received Howard Hughes Medical Institute and American Cancer Society awards. Dr. Glassman earned his A.B. from Harvard College and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School.
Mr. Modig co-founded Pharvaris and has served as Chief Executive Officer since its inception. Mr. Modig is also a director of the Company. Prior to co-founding the Company, Mr. Modig served as Chief Financial Officer of Prosensa Holding N.V., a biopharmaceutical company focusing on novel RNA modulating treatments for rare diseases like Duchenne muscular dystrophy, from March 2010 through its IPO on the Nasdaq in 2013 until its acquisition by BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. in January 2015.
From October 2003 to November 2008, Mr. Modig was Chief Financial Officer at Jerini AG through its IPO on the Frankfurt exchange in 2005 and sale to Shire plc in 2008. Jerini developed and launched icatibant for the treatment of HAE, now currently marketed by Takeda Pharmaceuticals under the FIRAZYR brand name. Before Jerini AG, Mr. Modig served as Chief Financial Officer at Surplex AG from 2001 to 2003 and as Finance Director Europe of U.S.-based Hayward Industrial Products Inc. from 1999 to 2001. In previous positions, Mr. Modig was a Partner in the Brussels-based private equity firm Agra Industria from 1994 to 1999 and a Senior Manager in the Financial Services Industry Group of Price Waterhouse LLP in New York from 1991 to 1994.
Ms. Monges has been a director since July 2021 and serves as the Chair of the Audit Committee. She serves as a non-executive director at Ferring Pharmaceuticals, ADC Therapeutics, BioMerieux and Novo Holdings. Prior to these roles, Ms. Monges was Chair of the board of EUROAPI, she held a position as VP of Finance of Nestlé’s Business Excellence Division. Prior to that, she served as the Global CFO of the OTC division at Novartis. Ms. Monges also served as CFO of European Pharmaceuticals at Wyeth/Pfizer and as CFO of the Global Pharmaceutical Business unit of Wyeth/Pfizer. She holds an MBA from Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris.
Mr. Schikan is a co-founder of the Company and has been a director since August 2019. Mr. Schikan is the former CEO of Prosensa Holding N.V. (Nasdaq: RNA), a biopharmaceutical company focusing on novel RNA modulating treatments for rare diseases including Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Under his leadership, the company listed on Nasdaq in 2013. Prosensa was acquired by BioMarin in 2015.
He is currently Chairman of Vicore Pharma (STO: VICO) and Microbiotica Ltd, and Supervisory Board Member of Organon N.V. Previously, he served on the boards of Sobi (STO: SOBI), Hansa Biopharma (STO: HNSA), Wilson Therapeutics (STO: WTX) (acquired by Alexion), Therachon (acquired by Pfizer), VectivBio (Nasdaq: VECT) (acquired by IronWood), Asceneuron, InteRNA and Complix. Mr. Schikan has a Pharm.D. degree from Utrecht University.
Pharvaris, Inc. and Pharvaris GmbH were incorporated on January 31, 2020, and March 27, 2020, respectively. Pharvaris, Inc. acts as a service provider to the principal Company of the Group. Pharvaris GmbH is the principal Company of the Group starting April 1, 2020. The principal Company owns the Group’s intellectual property and makes the major operating decisions.
