Cardiff based marine biotechnology company Jellagen has announced the appointment of Thomas-Paul Descamps (TP) as Chief Executive Officer.

MediWales reports Thomas-Paul Descamps joined the company and was appointed to the Board as an Executive Director on April 17th 2018.

After ten years working sales and marketing roles at GSK and Eli Lilly he joined Actelion in 2004, where he was Director Commercial Operations of the French affiliate. In 2008 he moved to Ipsen as a VP in charge of the neurology global portfolio management, including franchise strategy, product clinical development and business development. In 2011 he successfully expanded an Ipsen US acquisition start up in Europe through six countries openings. In 2013 he moved to London to join Allergan in a European commercial role before moving in 2015 to Mayoly-Spindler, a French mid size pharma company, as VP Europe. Since 2014, he has been acting as a business angel and helped to raise over £4m for Jellagen during its last two last financing rounds. He is an investor and Chairman of the Board at Histide, a Swiss biotech start up. He holds a Master’s Degree in General Management from Université Paris Dauphine and a Diploma of Finance and Marketing from Sciences-Po Paris.

MediWales reports Andrew Mearns Spragg, Jellagen’s Founder, Chief Scientific Officer and former CEO, said “When I proposed the second funding round to the Board, I was thinking to myself that on this occasion and in order to maximise the chances of Jellagen’s continued successful growth, I would like to step down as CEO and to focus on what I like which is the science, innovation and product development. Jellagen’s technology platform offers such a great potential so I took the opportunity to recruit a new CEO, seeking for an experienced general manager to help us scale-up our business. We then decided to appoint TP and I am delighted that we have secured a great new chief executive with a proven record within the life science industry. TP covers a wide array of competencies and he likes to create and lead teams to generate results. He is also very skilled at developing crosscutting strategies with a strong focus on implementation. We are looking forward to him joining our Board and driving Jellagen to the next level of success.”

Thomas-Paul Descamps said “I would first like to thank Andrew for his trust and the outstanding work achieved with his team during those 4 years. I am passionate about the marine biotechnology industry and it is an honour to become the new Chief Executive of Jellagen. I am most excited by its future portfolio, which I believe could bring sustainable innovation to the cell culture and regenerative medicine areas.”

Anthony Clarke, Managing Director, Newable Private Investing, previously London Business Angels, said “Jellagen is a company that we have been supporting since its inception and we met Thomas-Paul during the first financing round when they also joined our Angels in MedCity programme. His input as a senior adviser and lead angel to the investor syndicate has always been very valuable. We are delighted that he is now moving into a company he already knows quite well. Andrew and TP are making a great team together.”

Carmine Circelli, Technology Ventures Investment Executive at the Development Bank of Wales, said “Jellagen is a great example of an exciting Welsh business that’s pushing technological boundaries. In start-ups, transition phases are often delicate and we are very pleased to see Jellagen success to attract a Senior Executive leader at the time of commercialisation. Supporting businesses like Jellagen is at the core of our mission, and we look forward to hearing of their future success, lead by TP and Andrew.”