Intravacc, a global leading contract development and manufacturing organization of viral and bacterial vaccines, announced the appointment of Prof. Dr. Virgil Schijns as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO). Virgil joins Intravacc with over 25 years of scientific, clinical and vaccine development experience in oncology and infectious diseases. In his new role, Prof. Schijns will have overall responsibility for the scientific and clinical strategy, including scientific and clinical affairs.
Dr. Jan Groen, Intravacc’s CEO, comments:
“Virgil's arrival represents an important and valuable addition to the Intravacc team. With an excellent pedigree in oncology and infectious disease vaccinology and an entrepreneurial approach, we are confident he will be able to contribute to our on-going vaccine projects and success immediately. Virgil’s in-depth vaccinology experience rounds out our management team, as we continue to execute on our vaccine development strategy, including our broad SARS-Cov-2 vaccine program.”
Prof. Dr. Schijns was appointed special Professor in Immunology and Virology at North Carolina State University (NCSU) USA, in 2002, and guest Professor of Immune Intervention at Wageningen University, The Netherlands, Department Cell Biology & Immunology in 2008. Since 2013, he has been Guest Professor at Strathclyde University, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
Virgil also has extensive experience in the Life Science and Biotech sector. He was the CSO of Epitopoietic Research Corporation S.A. in Namur, Belgium and, before that, Chief Technology Officer of Crossbeta Biosciences, a company that developed vaccines based on misfolded proteins. Prior to this, Prof. Schijns was principal Immunologist of Nobilon, a newly business unit of AKZONOBEL, dedicated to human vaccines, and Head of Vaccine Technology and Immunology at Intervet-AKZONOBEL.
Virgil has a Ph.D. from the Institute of Virology at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, and has published 4 books, 12 book chapters, monographs and over 100 scientific peer-reviewed scientific articles. He also is a Registered Qualified Person (QP) for the GMP product Gliovac/ERC 1671, and Registered Responsible Person (RP) of the Tumor Tissue bank (TTB) in The Netherlands.
Prof. Dr. Virgil Schijns said:
“This is an exciting time to join Intravacc, especially following the recent new developments within the organization, which enables Intravacc to accelerate its commercial CDMO efforts and build its leading position within the vaccine development field. My role will be to expand upon the solid foundation Intravacc has achieved with several of their vaccine tech transfer projects and proprietary vaccine, as well as the development, validation and commercialization of promising new products in the pipeline.”
