Pierre Fabre names director of pharma R&D

Privately-held French drugmaker Pierre Fabre Group has appointed Maarten Kraan to the position of director of research and development for Pierre Fabre Pharmaceuticals (PFM), reporting to Frédéric Duchesne, chief executive of the Pharmaceuticals Division, and will sit on the branch’s executive committee.

A Dutch national, Dr Kraan is a doctor of medicine specialized in rheumatology and immunology. After a career in university hospitals in Holland, he entered the pharmaceutical industry in 2003, joining American laboratory Schering-Plough where, among other roles, he was global medical director for immunology until 2008. Dr Kraan subsequently worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY), Roche (ROG: SIX) and AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) in management positions in R&D, mainly in the field of inflammatory diseases. Since 2016, Dr Kraan has worked in venture-backed biotech companies Therachon and Stallergenes Greer.

Dr Kraan will be responsible for defining and implementing R&D strategy for Pierre Fabre Pharmaceuticals in its three priority areas of innovation: oncology, dermatology and consumer health. Each year, Pierre Fabre Pharmaceuticals allocates approximately 13.5% of its revenues to R&D. Its R&D teams are divided between the Pierre Fabre Research Institute (IRPF) based on the Oncopole campus in Toulouse and the Pierre Fabre Immunology Center (CIPF), specialized in monoclonal antibodies, which is based in Saint-Julien-en-Genevois.