Catapult Therapeutics welcomes new CEO Dominik Höchli
Lelystad, the Netherlands, April 15, 2021– Catapult Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel cancer treatments, announced today the appointment of Dominik Höchli as Chief Executive Officer. Höchli will succeed Catapult’s current CEO Wim Mol, who will retire on May 1st. Building on his extensive experience in general management, medical affairs and pharmaceutical marketing Höchli will focus on bringing Catapult’s lead product CAP-100, an innovative first-in-class humanized anti-CCR7 antibody for treatment of hematological malignancies, into its next phase.
“We are delighted that Dominik will be joining our team,” said Fernando Terrón, chairman of Catapult’s board. “Dominik’s capacities and impressive commercial track-record combined with his medical background perfectly match with what Catapult as a clinical-stage company needs. I am fully confident with Dominik taking over the baton and guiding our company into its next phase.”
“It has been a great experience and a natural end-point in my professional career to deliver Catapult the IND clearance for CAP-100 and complete all preparations for the start of the first study in patients,” said Wim Mol, Catapult’s retiring CEO. “I’m wishing Dominik all the best in his new role and look forward to see a bright future for Catapult and CAP-100 positively affecting cancer patient’s lives.”
“I’m excited to join Catapult as CEO. Being active in the hematological oncology field for almost a decade I’m aware of the high unmet medical need regarding long-term effective cancer treatments. I am very much looking forward to help close this gap by applying my medical and commercial experience to the further development of Catapult’s unique treatment approach for hematological and possibly also solid cancers,” said Dominik Höchli, Catapult’s soon to be CEO.
Dominik has a medical degree (MD) from the University of Bern. After residencies in adult and pediatric surgery, he worked a few years for the consulting company McKinsey&Co, before starting a career in the life-science/bio-pharmaceutical industry. Dominik has 20 years of experience in commercial and R&D leadership roles, including the medical oversight of the hematology-oncology portfolio during the last decade. He led global product launches for major blockbuster products, including Venetoclax, and has executive experience, most recently as VP, Head of Global Medical Affairs at Abbvie.
About Catapult
Catapult Therapeutics is a privately held Dutch company established in 2015 as a joint venture between Spanish and Dutch venture capital investors. Catapult is founded on the discoveries of Dr. Cecilia Munoz and her group at Hospital La Princesa in Madrid who identified and validated CCR7 as a therapeutic target for leukemias and lymphomas. Dutch biotech company Pepscan generated the antibodies against human CCR7. Catapult’s Phase I clinical trial (clinicaltrials.gov #NCT04704323) is expected to start in the second quarter of 2021. The study will be performed at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and two other leading clinical sites in the USA.
About CCR7 & CAP-100
The chemokine receptor CCR7 is essential for migration of immune cells to lymphoid organs. This pivotal receptor is over-expressed in hematological malignancies with lymph node involvement, such as CLL and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) amongst others. Anti-hCCR7 antibody CAP-100 offers a unique and biologically independent therapeutic mechanism to treat these hematological cancers at a fundamental point, by interrupting tumor cell migration to lymph nodes. In addition, CAP-100 provides strong cell killing (ADCC) and inhibition of survival of tumor cells in the lymph nodes.