Who we are

Mark J. Fitzpatrick is our Chief Executive Officer and member of our board of directors. Mark is a seasoned biopharmaceutical industry executive having held the positions of CEO, President or CFO for the past 25 years, primarily in biopharmaceutical companies.  Prior to Versantis, Mark held numerous positions of increasing responsibility at Chiasma, Inc., a publicly-traded, commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company recently acquired by Amryt PLC, including CFO, President, CEO and board member.  During his nearly six-year tenure at Chiasma, he led the turnaround of the company’s lead product from an FDA complete response letter in 2016 to FDA approval and commercial launch in 2020. Prior to Chiasma and since 1996, Mark was the Chief Financial Officer of numerous public and private biotechnology companies from the pre-clinical phase through both FDA and EMA regulatory approvals, global commercial launches and profitability.  During Mark’s more than 30 years of aggregate board, executive and financial management experience in both public and private companies, he was highly instrumental in raising in excess of $1.5 billion in public and private equity and debt financing capital. Mark currently serves on the boards of directors of Allena Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ALNA) and Stone Rehabilitation and Senior Living, a non-profit, community-based skilled nursing and elder care facility in Massachusetts.  Mr. Fitzpatrick began his professional career at Arthur Andersen LLP and obtained his Bachelor’s of Science degree from Boston College’s (Carroll School of Management) in 1984.  He earned a Certified Public Accountant certificate in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1987.

Biomedical engineer by training (EPFL Lausanne and UCSD San Diego), Vincent received his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. 

He has hands-on experience in biomedical and pharmaceutical disciplines essential to the development of Versantis’ pipeline. He is co-inventor of VS-01 and advanced the product from concept to non-clinical proof of efficacy and safety validations. He was awarded the Phoenix Group Award in the category Pharmaceutical Technology for his scientific contribution to VS-01. In 2016, he received the Pfizer Research Award, the most prestigious prize for medical research in Switzerland, awarded to young scientists who have made outstanding and pioneering contributions in basic or clinical research. 

Meriam is pharmacist by training (University of Geneva) and received her Master and PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Montreal. 

She acquired clinical drug development experience and was exposed to quality assurance and regulatory affairs in a leading Contract Research Organization (Celerion, formerly MDS Pharma Sciences) specialized in applied translational medicine, where she held many key operational and leadership positions. After a 10 year-deep dive in the pharmaceutical industry, she co-founded Versantis where she successfully led the development of VS-01 from an academic prototype to a clinical lead compound. She paved the regulatory path of VS-01 with successful submissions such as orphan drug, rare pediatric disease designations and clinical trial applications.

Katharina is a gastroenterologist and hepatologist with a strong clinical and scientific background in metabolic liver disease, liver cirrhosis and transplant hepatology.

Katharina was most recently Head of Transplant Medicine at the Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, Switzerland, where she built up and led the area of Transplant Medicine in a fast-growing liver transplant center. She has been a consultant specialist in Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology & Hepatology at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria. She received her training from the Medical University of Vienna and the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany, and did her post-graduate studies in Molecular Biology at the Center for Molecular Neurobiology, University of Hamburg, Germany. She was appointed as an Associate Professor at the Medical University of Vienna in January 2018. Katharina is a member of the European Association for the Study the Liver (EASL), the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), member of the editorial board and reviewer of several international scientific journals, as well as author of numerous scientific publications. She brings a wealth of expertise in translational and clinical research to support the successful evolution and transfer to clinic of Versantis´ therapeutics and diagnostics.

Pamela Williamson is an independent consultant for the bio-pharmaceutical industry with more than 30 years of global leadership experience. She has a strong track record in the successful development and registration of products to treat patients with serious and life-threatening rare diseases. She most recently served as SVP of Global Regulatory Affairs & Patient Safety at Alexion Pharmaceuticals.

Lise-Marie has received her federal diploma as pharmacist from the University of Basel (Switzerland) with advanced studies in pharmaceutical technology. She gained a solid experience in pharmaceutical development processes at Vectura (former SkyePharma AG) playing a key role over more than 10 years in the development and approval of Flutiform® inhaler in Europe. At Eumedica Pharmaceuticals AG, she built-up and led successfully the technical operations team for 5 years. In this leadership role, she was responsible for managing the Contract Manufacturing Organizations, elaborating and implementing supply chain, distribution and regulatory strategies for commercial products. Besides her key contribution to new product acquisitions, she acted as Qualified Person for the Swiss market.

Rini is a neuroscientist by training and holds a PhD in biology from the University of Konstanz, Germany. She has over 17 years of experience in drug development in cardiovascular, neurological, neuromuscular, and pulmonary indication and held various positions in clinical operations, GCP compliance and quality, managing and overseeing complex, multinational studies, GCP inspections and audit programs. She started her career in the industry at Quintiles (now IQVIA) before joining Santhera Pharmaceuticals, a Swiss startup company focusing on rare diseases in children and adults. Rini is a member of the European Federation of GCP Quality Working Party.

Kalman is a market access and health policy leader with a deep understanding of global healthcare markets. He is a multi-lingual executive with 15 years’ proven success in health policy, pricing, health economics, key accounts, business development and access insights. Kalman has extensive experience in strategic planning to support commercial activities, product launches, life cycle management and off-patent pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining Versantis, Kalman worked for Merck Co. (MSD), Abbott Laboratories, Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis, and Pfizer in various commercial lead role, spanning across affiliate, regional and global level. His last role in Merck Co. (MSD) Oncology drove a strategic access pricing insights, which contributed around $18B business globally. Kalman is a registered pharmacists from Bandung Institute of Technology, health economics and health policy degree from Harvard, and MBA from WHU Otto-Beisheim in Germany.

Leo received his master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. During his master’s thesis, he optimized the diagnostic tool TS-01 for ammonia quantification in blood-derived biofluids. In his role as R&D project leader he is responsible to consolidate and enlarge product knowledge and to continue the development of TS-01.