Peter Reinemer, PhD, MBA, has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company as of February 2023. He joined Opterion in July 2021 as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and will assume this position in addition to his new role for the time being.

Peter has more than 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, and began his career at Bayer Pharma, where he spent over 10 years in discovery research in Germany and Japan. He subsequently served as Chief Scientific Officer, Head of Business Development, Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President, Corporate Development, of Proteros, a discovery services company based in Munich and Boston. He co-founded IMD Natural Solutions, developer of the all-natural preservative agent Nagardo®, which was acquired by Lanxess AG in 2017. Peter holds a Master in Chemistry, a PhD from the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry/TU Munich (Structural Biology, Prof. Dr. Robert Huber), and an MBA.

Dr Guido Grenzmann, PhD, is the founder of Opterion Health and has more than 25 years of experience in Pharma R&D and Project Management. After academic work on bacterial and viral mechanisms of translational regulation, he became Group Leader Molecular Biology/Genomics at Pfizer and Director Biochemistry/GeneProfiling at Altana Pharma where he worked in Discovery of inflammation in respiratory diseases. In 2007 he founded PBS PharmaBioServices providing contract research and consulting mainly in inflammatory diseases, in multiple therapeutic domains. 2012, Guido founded Opterion, with the aim to develop a new PD solution, to decrease side-effects of this promising therapy.
 

Opterion Health engaged Ulrike Grimm in June 2020 to establish project excellence for its development program.

Ulrike started her career as a sales representative for Sanol Pharma and joined Merck KGaA in 1997, where she held roles of increasing responsibility starting as team leader for R&D projects and continuing as product leader for Merck’s second commercial oncology drug.

From 2007 to 2010 she was the Vice President of Project and Portfolio Management at Fresenius Biotech. Ulrike joined Vifor Pharma in 2010 and served as the Vice President for Project and Alliance Management as well as Clinical Operations during the next eight years. In 2019 Ulrike started her own consulting company Pro2S AG.

Maxim Voropaiev joined Opterion in November 2023 as Chief Medical Officer (CMO). Maxim has 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry in global, strategic roles with increasing responsibilities in clinical development, medical affairs, and statistics.

Having worked in multiple therapeutic areas (oncology, kidney disease, gastroenterology, autoimmune/inflammatory diseases, neurological disease and respiratory tract) at the headquarters of companies like Novartis, Vifor Pharma (now CSL) and Bayer, Maxim has built a unique set of skills geared towards the excellence in clinical studies design and execution. Maxim holds a medical doctor (MD) degree and a master degree (MAS) in statistics.

Daniel Lustenberger is an experienced international finance, accounting and management consulting professional and joined Opterion Health in September 2021 as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). He is a Swiss Certified Public Accountant, holds an Executive MBA from IMD in Lausanne and has 20 years of life sciences and technology experience.

Daniel supports several start-ups and growth companies, particularly in the life sciences and high tech sectors, as a part-time CFO, business advisor and board member. Prior to Opterion, he held senior finance positions with Vifor Pharma, Gategroup and DKSH. In his early career, he spent several years with PwC, providing advisory services in M&A, IPOs, process and system improvements, corporate governance and risk management.

Mylène Fleurant joined Opterion Health in July 2021 as Head of Quality having spent more than 20 years in leading quality (QA) functions in the life sciences industry. She worked for 10 years as Region Head Quality Europe at Novartis and implemented global quality systems at Merck Serono. Prior to founding her own consulting company in 2019, Mylène was Global Head of QA at Novimmune and VP Quality Affairs at Alvotech.

Mylène is a chemical engineer and holds a master’s degree from the University of Sherbrooke, Canada, as well as a degree in Quality Assurance Management from L’Ecole de Technologie Supérieure (ETS) at the University of Quebec.

Marc Willuhn joined Opterion in January 2023 as Head of CMC. Marc has more than 20 years of experience in drug development for global markets. He has an outstanding track record in pharmaceutical product development, resulting in several approved products. Marc held senior leadership roles at Fresenius Kabi and Baxter Healthcare before founding his own company in 2018, providing technical and strategic consulting services to life sciences companies. Marc holds a master’s degree in chemistry (Gerhard-Mercator-University Duisburg, Germany) and a PhD in organic chemistry from the Max-Planck-Institute for Coal Research in Mülheim/Ruhr, Germany. He completed postdoctoral studies at the Faculté de Pharmacie in Paris, France, and also holds an MBA.

Dr David Ebsworth, PhD, has been Chairman of Opterion Health since December 2016. David has over 40 years of experience in the Pharma, Healthcare and Biotech industry. David is a past CEO of Galenica, Vifor Pharma as well as Oxford GlycoSciences and past global head of the Pharmaceutical Division of Bayer. He has chaired several private and public companies and has served on numerous boards as either chairman of the audit, remuneration or nominations and governance committees. David is currently Chairman of Verona Pharma, which recently reached a $2 billion valuation following FDA approval for the first maintenance treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in more than 20 years. He also serves as Chairman of Actimed Therapeutics.

Dr Ricardo Cordero, PhD, serves as Vice Chairman of Opterion Health since 2016. Ricardo has over 30 years of experience in the Financial Services Industry where he held various senior positions, for example as CEO of BZ Bank, Managing Partner at Reichmuth & Co Investmentfonds AG, Co-founder and Co-CEO at BWO Bank, etc. Further, he is a passionate and experienced private Swiss investor and holds various investments in the Life Science, Technology and high-end Consumer Goods industry.

Dr Jan-Anders Karlsson, PhD, has 40 years of experience as a CEO and board member in pharma and biotech companies in Europe, Asia and the US. Jan-Anders was a founder and CEO of Reset Pharmaceuticals Inc, and prior to this served as CEO of Verona Pharma, a NASDAQ-listed biopharmaceutical company developing respiratory drugs. As CEO of S*BIO Pte Ltd, he focused on the discovery and development of drugs for the treatment of cancer – its product Vonjo (pacritinib) is approved in the US. Prior to S*BIO, he was Head of Pharma Global Research at Bayer Healthcare AG and held positions in Rhone-Poulenc Rorer and Astra AB. Jan-Anders received a doctorate in Medical Science (PhD) in Clinical Experimental Pharmacology from the University of Lund, Sweden.

Robert Leitz has 20 years of experience at renowned financial institutions and is the Managing Director of iolite Capital, a private investment firm based in Pfäffikon SZ, Switzerland. Before iolite, he held positions at Glencore (the world’s largest commodity trader) and various financial institutions, including TPG Credit (a hedge fund), Goldman Sachs’ European Special Situations Group, and KPMG Corporate Restructuring. Robert graduated from the University of St. Gallen (HSG), Switzerland, with an MSc. in Business Administration and Economics, and wrote his master’s thesis under the guidance of Prof. Eli Noam at Columbia University, New York. Robert is a member of the Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) and is Finance Chair for the Zurich chapter.