MinervaX appoints Lidia Oostvogels as CMO

MinervaX ApS, a privately held Danish biotechnology company developing a novel vaccine against Group B Streptococcus (GBS), today announces the appointment of Lidia Oostvogels as Chief Medical Officer and provides an update on its novel GBS vaccine.

Lidia Oostvogels brings a wealth of experience in vaccine development with more than 25 years’ experience in clinical development. Prior to joining MinervaX, she was Senior Vice President, Area Head, Infectious Diseases and Senior Vice President, Clinical Development, for Prophylactic Vaccines CureVac AG. Oostvogels worked for GSK plc for more than 12 years, where she was Director of Vaccine Discovery and Development, Clinical, focused on Influenza and Zoster. Prior to GSK, she spent nine years Boehringer Ingelheim in a clinical development role. She gained her medical doctor qualification from Ghent University in Belgium. Oostvogels’ experience will be instrumental as MinervaX progresses its GBS vaccine towards phase III clinical development.

MinervaX completed enrolment of its 2nd phase II clinical trial of its novel GBS vaccine in pregnant women across Denmark, the UK and South Africa. The randomized, multicenter trial will evaluate the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of one and two doses of its GBS vaccine at different dosing regimens in healthy pregnant women. Details of MinervaX’s clinical trials can be found at clinicaltrials.gov under the identifiers NCT04596878, NCT05154578 and NCT05005247.

MinervaX’s GBS vaccine has been granted Fast Track regulatory status by the US Food and Drug Administration. The process is designed to facilitate the development of investigational treatments that demonstrate the potential to address unmet medical needs in serious or life-threatening conditions. Programs with Fast Track designation can benefit from early and frequent communication with the FDA throughout the entire drug development and review process and marketing application.

This follows the European Medicines Agency’s decision to award Priority Medicine (PRIME) status to the vaccine in September, an initiative that optimizes development and evaluation of medicines targeting an unmet medical need.

Per Fischer, Chief Executive Officer of MinervaX, said: “I am delighted to welcome Lidia Oostvogels to the leadership team. Her extensive track record in vaccine development will be invaluable as we continue to make significant progress with our novel GBS vaccine. We are looking forward to an exciting and pivotal year of development milestones in 2023 as we continue to advance our vaccine for the prevention of the large unmet medical need, Group B Streptococcal infections.”

Lidia Oostvogels, Chief Medical Officer of MinervaX, said: “I am hugely excited to join MinervaX and look forward to contributing to the further development of its GBS vaccine. There is a major need for more options to prevent this disease and I am delighted to be working with the experienced team at MinervaX to bring this important vaccine to populations at risk.”
MB Bureau