Rexgenero Appoints Dr Gilbert Wagener as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer

02/07/2020

London, UK, 2 July 2020: Rexgenero, a regenerative medicine company developing advanced cell therapies to treat chronic limb-threatening ischaemia (CLI), today announces that Dr Gilbert Wagener has joined the Company as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. In this new role, Gilbert will be responsible for cell therapy development, clinical and medical activities, and regulatory strategy.

Gilbert has more than 20 years of experience in global drug development for cardiovascular and immune-mediated indications. Prior to his role at Rexgenero, Gilbert was a Senior Partner at TranScrip Partners LLP where he was the strategic lead on several drug programmes. This involved work on assets at various stages in the drug development life cycle and leading on due diligence, development strategy, proof-of-concept (PoC) and Phase I–III clinical studies across several auto-immune disease indications, including PoC and development strategy for a cell therapy candidate for CLI.

After practising as a physician, Gilbert started his drug development career at Bayer Health AG in 1993, where he held positions of increasing responsibility in late-stage development, life-cycle management and Phase I and PoC studies for drug candidates for cardiovascular indications. Following this, he held a number of senior roles at Genzyme B.V., including Vice President, Vice President of Clinical Research (Genzyme Europe) and Head of Department for Cardiovascular (Genzyme Europe), and was responsible for PoC trials for stem cell and gene therapies in cardiovascular indications and coordination of medical due diligence.

Joe Dupere, Rexgenero’s CEO, commented: “We are delighted to welcome Gilbert who brings deep medical and scientific experience and expertise, particularly in the areas of cardiovascular diseases and cell and gene therapies. He has been a highly valued advisor during the development of REX-001 over the last five years and was instrumental in the establishment of our scientific advisory board. Gilbert will play a crucial role in steering our development programs through the next critical stage and beyond.”

Gilbert Wagener added: “I have followed the development of Rexgenero’s cell therapy candidate for chronic limb-threatening ischaemia closely as it has progressed through clinical development, and I strongly believe in its potential for the treatment of this serious and life-threatening disease. I look forward to working with Joe and the wider clinical teams as we advance the Phase III clinical trial and overarching drug development strategy.”

Gilbert is a fellow of the European Society of Hypertension and member of the European Society of Cardiology, the Working Group on Cardiovascular Pharmacology and Drug Therapy. He is also a member of the German Society of Pharmacology and Toxicology and the German Society of Physiology.

Gilbert studied medicine in Marburg, Germany, completed an MD in Pharmacology and gained experience in Neurophysiology and Clinical Neurology at Marburg University Hospital. Gilbert holds a PhD in Epidemiology and Public Health from Erasmus University, the Netherlands, and an MBA in Pharmaceutical Medicine from University of Basel, Switzerland.

innovative cell therapies
Contact us