Vedanta Biosciences Expands Leadership Team and Appoints Head of Commercial

By: Vedanta Biosciences via Business Wire

July 23, 2024 at 07:00 AM EDT

- Appointments support ongoing Phase 2 COLLECTiVE202 trial of VE202, pivotal Phase 3 RESTORATiVE303 trial of VE303 and planning for commercial stage activity -

Vedanta Biosciences, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing medicines for the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases, today announced three appointments to its leadership team. Christof Marré, a seasoned biopharma marketing leader, joins the company as Senior Vice President and Head of Commercial. In addition, Steven Shiff, M.D., a pharmaceutical executive and physician specializing in gastroenterology, has been appointed as SVP, Clinical Research; and Jack Kyte has been promoted to SVP, Human Resources.

“I am delighted to welcome Christof and Steve to the team,” said Bernat Olle, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Vedanta Biosciences. “The expertise that Christof, Steve, and Jack bring are vital to our next phase of growth as we execute our ongoing pivotal Phase 3 RESTORATiVE303 trial of VE303 for C. difficile infection and Phase 2 COLLECTiVE202 trial of VE202 for ulcerative colitis, and establish our commercial function.”

Christof Marré brings almost three decades of experience as a biopharma marketing leader and strategist, and most recently served as VP of Marketing & Pipeline Planning at Alpine Immune Sciences, recently acquired by Vertex Pharmaceuticals. At Alpine, he established the company’s Commercial function, including building out capabilities in market research, competitive intelligence, healthcare practitioner marketing & patient advocacy, and driving indication prioritization and valuation within the company’s Immunology portfolio. Earlier in his career, Mr. Marré was involved with multiple successful product launches at both established and emerging biopharma companies. He holds a Master of Science degree in Economics from The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Steven Shiff, M.D., is a gastroenterologist and clinical executive with over 20 years of experience in research and industry R&D. Dr. Shiff was most recently SVP and Head of Clinical Development at Intercept Pharmaceuticals, where he oversaw design and implementation of the company’s global clinical development strategy focused on rare and serious liver diseases, including supporting an NDA filing. Previously, he served as VP, Clinical Development, and GI Therapeutic Area Head at Allergan for 14 years, in which capacity he led global clinical development of the company’s GI pipeline and marketed GI product portfolio. Dr. Shiff spent the first 13 years of his career as a practicing physician and professor, initially at The Rockefeller University and later at Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

Jack Kyte has served as Vice President and Head of Human Resources at Vedanta since 2020, following more than a decade of multi-industry HR experience. Mr. Kyte is responsible for developing and executing Vedanta’s people strategy in alignment with the organization’s current and anticipated future needs and overseeing its human resources function both internally and with external partners.

About Vedanta Biosciences

Vedanta Biosciences is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing medicines for the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases. The company’s lead assets are potential first-in-class oral therapies – VE303, in a Phase 3 registrational trial for prevention of recurrent C. difficile infection, and VE202, in a Phase 2 trial for treatment of ulcerative colitis. Vedanta’s pipeline has been built using the company’s industry-leading product engine for the development of therapies based on defined consortia of bacteria grown from pure clonal cell banks. The product engine, supported by broad foundational intellectual property, includes one of the largest libraries of bacteria isolated from the human microbiome, vast clinical datasets, proprietary capabilities in consortium design, and end-to-end CGMP manufacturing capabilities at commercial launch scale.