Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Entrepreneur Geert Cauwenbergh made CEO of Rhei Pharmaceuticals

By Mass High Tech Staff

Rhei Pharmaceuticals Inc. has found its new CEO in Geert Cauwenbergh, a serial life sciences entrepreneur and ex-Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) R&D executive. Cauwenbergh replaces the late Joos Horsten, the company’s previous CEO, who passed away recently.

Prior to joining the company, Cauwenbergh founded health-care consulting firm Phases123 LLC and the dermatology-focused pharmaceutical company, Barrier Therapeutics Inc., recently acquired by Stiefel Laboratories (Nasdaq: BTRX). Barrier went through a successful IPO during Cauwenberg’s tenure before being purchased by Stiefel for $148 million in July. Before that, Cauwenberg served in numerous technology and R&D senior executive roles at J&J.

Rhei received approval from China’s health authority to begin clinical trials for Asacard, its controlled released version of aspirin to prevent cardiovascular diseases. The company describes its product pipeline as low-risk, intended for the Chinese market. Rhei predicts it will be commercializing a series of products in China over the next few years with one planned in 2008.

The drug’s formulation technology, Micropump, was licensed from French drug delivery developer Flamel Technologies (Nasdaq: FLML).
Several members of Rhei’s board of directors are also members of Boston private equity firm J.W. Childs Associates LP. The firm has offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Rhei named J.W. Childs among its investors in a 2007 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It disclosed it had raised $1.5 million at that time.