Adelaide, Australia, 1st April 2022 – GPN Vaccines is pleased to announce Dr Manon Cox has joined the Company’s Board of Directors.
Dr Manon Cox is the Founder of NextWaveBio, providing scientific and strategic advice to biopharmaceutical companies around preclinical and clinical development, manufacturing and quality systems.
Prior to starting NextWaveBio, Manon led the development of Flublok® at Protein Sciences Corporation, the only FDA approved recombinant influenza vaccine. Manon held a number of roles between 1998 and 2018 including President and Chief Executive Officer, before the company was acquired by Sanofi.
Before Protein Sciences she worked at Gist-brocades, a large Dutch company specialising in fermentation, where she held various scientific and management positions over a ten-year period.
Manon serves on numerous boards including Vaxxas, the Netherland-America Foundation and the International Society for Vaccines, as well as on various Scientific Advisory Boards among others Epivax Therapeutics and Omnicyte. She has received many honours and awards recognising her stature as a leader in innovation and influenza, including in 2014 receiving a Doctorate in Humane Letters honoris causa from St. Joseph University and the Woman of Innovation award from the Connecticut Technology Council. She was also elected fellow in the International Society of Vaccines in 2015.
Manon holds a Doctorate from the University of Wageningen, received her MBA with distinction from the University of Nyenrode and the University of Rochester, NY and holds a Doctorandus degree in Molecular Biology, Genetics and Biochemistry from the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
GPN Vaccines’ Chairman & CEO Professor Tim Hirst commented, “I’m delighted to welcome Dr Cox as a Non-Executive Director of GPN Vaccines at a critical time in the Company’s development as we progress our serotype independent pneumococcal vaccine, Gamma-PN, into a first-in-human clinical trial. Manon’s experience and leadership in capital raising, acquisitions and vaccine development brings a unique and valuable perspective”, he said.
Manon said, “I am excited to join GPN Vaccines in their mission to develop a universal pneumococcal vaccine. Australia’s science and technology sector offers great potential for vaccine development, as demonstrated by the discovery of Gardasil, Q-Vax and other cutting-edge vaccine delivery technologies”.
About GPN Vaccines
GPN Vaccines is a public (unlisted) 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 100 different serotypes of S. pneumoniae and the best vaccine currently on the market only protects against 20 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.
