27 April 2021 - - Dutch taxane therapies developer Modra Pharmaceuticals has appointed Hemanshu Shah, Ph.D., MBA and Klaus Schollmeier, Ph.D. to its supervisory board, the company said.

The new members bring more than 50 years of combined experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, and will provide guidance critical for the acceleration of Modra's growth and business development efforts, as well as the company's plans for the advancement of lead clinical candidate, ModraDoc006/r, a boosted oral formulation of docetaxel.

Modra recently presented preliminary data from its Phase IIb trial of ModraDoc006/r, which showed a positive safety and tolerability profile in metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer.

Dr. Shah has over thirty years' experience in both large pharmaceutical and emerging biotechnology companies including BMS, Astellas, Innate and Johnson and Johnson.

His experience encompasses multiple functional areas including drug development, strategic marketing, business development and commercial operations with a focus in oncology.

He has a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Rutgers University and an MBA from the University at Buffalo.

Dr. Schollmeier is an advisor, board member and chairman of several biotech companies and mentors a number of start-ups across Europe. He was CEO of SuppreMol before it was sold to Baxalta.

Prior to that, he served as CEO and chairman of the board of Santhera. He also served as managing director of the healthcare/biotechnology group at ING-BHF Bank for ING Group Europe. Schollmeier holds a PhD in biology from the University of Düsseldorf.

Modra Pharmaceuticals aims to transform taxane therapy by developing therapies that are less toxic, more effective and can be taken at home in tablet form.

The company's goal is to dramatically improve the therapeutic outcomes and everyday lives of the hundreds of thousands of cancer patients undergoing taxane therapy worldwide.

Modra's lead program is nearing completion of a randomized Phase 2b clinical study in prostate cancer to further demonstrate the value of the approach, having already shown promising results in earlier studies in prostate and breast cancers.