Press Releases

April 16, 2024   |   News
Shelly West joins etherna as Business Development Director US
  • Brings strong US business development track record
  • Focus on expanding partnerships with biopharma and pharma
  • Integrated offering key differentiator – Proprietary customized RNA chemistry and lipid nanoparticles (cLNPs) expertise combined with GMP process knowhow

Niel, Belgium, April 16, 2024 – etherna (“the Company”), a leading mRNA technologies company, announced today that Shelly West has been appointed Business Development Director US. She joins as the Company gains increasing traction for its proprietary RNA-based medicines and LNP delivery platforms in North America and brings extensive experience in building strategic contacts, networks, and business relationships.

Shelly arrives from Cellpoint Biosciences, the Houston-based cell therapy CDMO where she was Senior Director, Business Development, having previously held senior roles at Recipharm, MaxCyte, and Synthego. Shelly holds a B.S. in Microbiology from North Carolina State University.

Shelly commented: “RNA therapeutics are among the most exciting areas currently in life sciences. etherna is a highly innovative leader in the mRNA and lipid nanoparticle field and I look forward to helping build partnerships with US pharma and biotech companies to create novel medicines for patients.”

Bernard Sagaert, CEO etherna, added: “Shelly’s network and experience will enable us to accelerate our growth in this key market. As the range of opportunities for mRNA therapeutics continues to expand beyond oncology and respiratory diseases into areas such as autoimmune, we are getting increasing interest in our partnership model.”

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, and 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.