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We are Pioneers

Our team of seasoned industry experts explores the world of water-free therapies to develop best-in-class ocular therapies. We expand into other eye care indications and topical therapeutics spaces.

Management

Christian Roesky Ph.D.

Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Roesky was appointed CEO & Managing Director of Novaliq effective November 1, 2016. He brings to Novaliq more than 20 years in the field of eye care as well as extensive operational experience at multiple international healthcare companies. Previously, Dr. Roesky was General Manager for the D-A-CH region of Bausch + Lomb GmbH in Berlin; Commercial Director Central Europe of Abbott’s Diagnostics Division, General Manager and speaker of the German Country Management Board of Abbott GmbH & Co. KG in Wiesbaden from 2013 – 2015; and, General Manager of Alcon Germany & Austria (Novartis) from 2009-2013.
Prior to his general management assignments, Dr. Roesky worked as Marketing Manager EURMEA for Alcon in the USA, Spain and Switzerland, focusing on strategy and market access to transform global and regional commercial activities. He studied chemistry in Bonn and Freiberg, both in Germany, and was awarded his Ph.D. with honors from the Technical University of Freiberg in Germany.

Oliver Schlüter Ph.D.

Managing Director/Chief Financial Officer

Dr. Schlüter was CFO of CureVac GmbH from 2010 to 2015. During his tenure at CureVac, he was instrumental in the transformation of a 70 employee R&D-driven company to a 170-employee customer-centric and value-focused corporation that entered into several strategic partnerships with in-house cGMP-manufacturing. From the time of his appointment in 2010, the company secured more than €200 million in funding and increased the company value more than tenfold to more than €1 billion.
Dr. Schlüter has 25 years of professional experience within the fields of Finance and Life Sciences. He holds a PhD in computational finance and also studied business administration.

Gabriela Burian MD, MPH

Consulting CMO

Dr. Burian joined Novaliq in 2017. With over 25 years of international clinical experience, she specializes in the field of clinical research and drug development in ophthalmology, with particular interest in clinical translation and biological markers.
Previously she held various leadership positions including Global Program Medical Director at Novartis Pharma and Ophthalmology Early Program Leader at F. Hoffmann-La Roche. Based in Basel, Switzerland, she founded and directs GB Biomed Advisors GmbH and provides clinical development strategic advice to ophthalmological startup projects around the world. She also currently serves as CMO of Iconic Therapeutics, Inc. (San Francisco, CA, USA) and is a faculty member of the European School for Advanced Studies in Ophthalmology (ESASO, Lugano, Switzerland).

Sonja Krösser Ph.D.

VP Medical Science & Regulatory Affairs

Dr. Sonja Krösser joined Novaliq in 2014. As VP Medical Science & Regulatory Affairs she is responsible for leading development teams, progressing drug candidates from candidate selection through preclinical development into clinical development and for the clinical and regulatory strategy.

Before assuming her role at Novaliq, Dr Krösser worked in different leadership roles at Merck KGaA, focusing on translational medicine and PK/PD as well as modeling and simulation analysis within clinical development. Her experience comprises projects across all development stages from phase 0 to phase 4, including both NCE and NBE projects in different therapeutic areas. Since 2014 she has specialized in ophthalmology, in particular in Dry Eye Disease.

She studied pharmacy and received her PhD in Microbiology from the Ruperto Carlo University Heidelberg, Germany.

Martin Mauden Ph.D.

Vice President Chemistry, Manufacturing & Control

Dr. Mauden is a pharmacist by training with extensive experience in chemistry, manufacturing and control of medicinal products. He previously worked at Abbvie/Abbott GmbH & Co KG, Ludwigshafen and Merck KGaA, Darmstadt.
As part of the executive team Dr. Mauden focusses on chemistry, manufacturing and control (CMC) and the formulation development at Novaliq and our partners.

Jörg Haißer Ph.D.

Vice President Supply Chain Management & Analytical Development

Dr. Haißer is a chemist by training with broad experience from early-stage analytical R&D to Quality Control of finished medicinal products. He gained experience Catalent, RP Scherer and Protzek, a drug screening company.
Dr. Haißer focusses on all supply chain, analytical development and quality control matters within Novaliq.

Karen Pasig

Vice President Finance & Accounting

Ms Pasig has 20+ years of professional experience within tax, accounting, finance and joined Novaliq in 2016. Before joining the company she was Head of Tax at Celesio AG, Germany. She further gained experience in roles with incrasing responsibility at Kaufland, Phoenix Pharmahandel and PricewaterhouseCoopers (pwc).

MaryJane Rafii, Ph.D., MBA

Consulting Business Development

MaryJane is a seasoned executive and a veteran deal maker with more than 25 years of industry experience in BD, R&D, and VC investment. She is an independent strategic and BD advisor helping biotech/startups reach their partnering goal globally and in cross-border transactions with Asia. Most recently, MaryJane served as Senior Vice President of AffaMed Therapeutics, a leading venture-backed CNS and ophthalmology biotech in China, where she led the strategy and partnering efforts to build up its robust pipeline. She served as Chief Executive for ASTA Pharma (spun out of Fuji Chemical of Japan), EyGen Biosciences (spun out of Yale University), Semathera (Montreal, Canada), and as CBO for Fovea Pharma (now Sanofi based in Paris, France), Bioenvision (acquired by Genzyme based in Scotland). She co-founded Jade Therapeutics spun out of Pfizer, which she led as CEO and COO before successfully transacting an M&A with EyeGate Pharma (NASDAQ- EYEG). MaryJane currently serves as a Partner and Advisor at MSQ Ventures.

MaryJane received her MBA from INSEAD in France and a PhD in Neuro-ophthalmology from Cardiff University in Wales, United Kingdom. She subsequently was a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow and conducted her postdoctoral work at the University of Kentucky. She obtained her master’s degree from UCSF and her BS in molecular biology from the University of Southern California.

She speaks seven languages and worked globally in Europe, the US, Japan, China and APAC.