Ablynx appoints ex-GSK director Johan Heylen as chief commercial officer

Belgian drug developer Ablynx (Euronext Brussels: ABLX) has announced the appointment of Johan Heylen as chief commercial officer.

Mr Heylen will assume responsibility for all Ablynx’s commercial activities. He has more than 20 years of experience in global biopharmaceutical sales, marketing and business development at GlaxoSmithKline, Servier and Wyeth. Most recently, Mr Heylen was Executive Director, Global Commercial Lead, Cancer Immunotherapeutics, at GSK, where he headed the global commercial teams and was responsible for the development and implementation of the launch strategy for GSK’s cancer immunotherapeutics portfolio.

Prior to that, Mr Heylen led and launched the successful global commercial and marketing efforts for three of GSK’s paediatric vaccines, Rotarix, Priorix and Varilix, which together achieved sales of more than 1.5 billion euros. He has experience in a wide range of therapeutic fields.