Adelaide, Australia, 18 November 2019 – GPN Vaccines is pleased to announce Dr Lauren Giorgio has been appointed as the Company’s Chief Operating Officer.
Lauren brings valuable experience in intellectual property management, business development, stakeholder engagement, commercialisation and operations in the life sciences sector, encompassing the pharmaceutical, medical device, digital health and diagnostic industries. She has spent her career working alongside world-leading academics and clinicians to commercialise medical research. Most recently, she led the Business Development Office at the Centre for Eye Research Australia and prior to this, was part of the Business Development team at the internationally acclaimed Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. Lauren has also been involved in the establishment, management and strategic direction of several small companies including OccuRx, Enlighten Imaging and Catalyst Therapeutics.
Lauren will be responsible for overseeing operational aspects of GPN Vaccines, and working closely with the R&D team as well as external contract research organisations and manufacturers, to facilitate the planning and execution of a first-in-human clinical study of GPN Vaccines’ serotype- independent pneumococcal vaccine.
Lauren commented on her appointment “I am delighted to be joining GPN Vaccines as COO at this exciting time in the Company’s development and to continue my passion for helping start-up companies thrive. I am pleased to be joining a highly committed and dynamic team addressing one of most important challenges in infectious disease, a better pneumococcal vaccine against the world’s foremost bacterial pathogen.”
GPN Vaccines’ Chairman & CEO, Dr Tim Hirst commented, “I am thrilled to welcome Lauren to our executive team and I look forward to working with her on driving forward the clinical evaluation and commercialisation of our innovative Gamma-PNTM vaccine. The Company is poised to increase significantly its contracts with third party CROs; and Lauren’s experience and management skills will be a great asset to the team.”
Lauren has a PhD in cancer biology from the University of Adelaide and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
About GPN Vaccines
GPN Vaccines is a private biotechnology company developing a vaccine against Streptococcus pneumoniae, which is responsible for causing life-threatening pneumonia, bacteraemia and meningitis, as well as otitis media (middle ear infections). Each year it causes 1-2 million deaths worldwide, killing more children than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. There are now 98 different serotypes of S. pneumoniae and the best vaccine currently on the market only protects against 13 of them. Gamma-PN – GPN Vaccines’ new S. pneumoniae vaccine is being developed to protect children and adults against all S. pneumoniae strains, regardless of strain serotype.
