Month: June 2023

June 8, 2023   |   News
Steffen Helmling joins etherna as Chief Business Officer
  • Combines strong US business development track record with in-depth mRNA expertise
  • Global remit with focus on growth of etherna’s portfolio of partners
  • Integrated offering key differentiator – Proprietary customized RNA chemistry and lipid nanoparticles (cLNPs) expertise combined with GMP process knowhow

Niel, Belgium, June 8, 2023 – etherna (“the Company”), a leading mRNA technologies company, announced today that Steffen Helmling, PhD has been appointed Chief Business Officer. He joins as the Company continues to invest in its proprietary RNA-based medicines and LNP delivery platforms to exploit its expertise in the field. Leveraging over 18 years of experience in business development, alliances and pharma partnering, Steffen will focus on growing etherna’s portfolio of partners globally.

Steffen Helmling arrives from X-Chem, Inc., the Boston-based pioneer of DNA-Encoded Library (DEL) technology where he was Chief Business Officer in charge of business development, licensing, marketing and alliance management. Steffen holds a PhD in RNA processing from Tufts University’s School of Biomedical Sciences.

Steffen commented: “I am excited to be back in the transformational field of RNA-based medicines. etherna is a highly innovative leader in the mRNA and lipid nanoparticle field. I look forward to driving our business strategy of being the premier discovery and development partner to pharma and biotech to create novel medicines for patients.”

Bernard Sagaert, interim CEO of etherna, added: “Having Steffen on board will be invaluable in helping us reach out to partners with a route into mRNA therapeutics based on our industry-leading leading platforms. His extensive US network will help us accelerate this process in this key market.”

Since etherna was founded in 2013, the Company has established an integrated set of proprietary capabilities for end-to-end design, development and manufacture of next-generation mRNA products, with a focus on modulated expression delivery platforms, optimized RNA chemistry supported by proprietary process technologies. These include molecular designs, lipid biochemistry expertise, customized lipid nanoparticle formulations (cLNPs), mRNA-based T cell adjuvants, and advanced manufacturing processes, and overcome the current challenges facing the development of mRNA therapeutics. etherna’s business model utilizes this suite of capabilities as enablers to deliver superior products for partners in both early-stage research as well as later-stage development for mRNA therapeutics.