Forbion appoints both Dr Ton Logtenberg and Dr Michael Hayden as Venture Partners

Naarden, The Netherlands – 31 March 2022 – Forbion, a leading European life sciences venture capital firm, today announces the appointments of Dr Ton Logtenberg and Dr Michael Hayden as Venture Partners.

Dr Logtenberg is a highly respected, successful serial life sciences entrepreneur. He is the founder, former CEO and President of Merus N.V (NASDAQ: MRUS), a clinical-stage oncology company, advancing treatments based on multi-specific antibodies. He was also the founder and CEO of U-BiSys, a Dutch biotechnology company that merged with Introgene to become Crucell N.V., serving as its Chief Scientific Officer. Crucell was acquired by Johnson & Johnson for $2.4 billion in 2011. Dr Logtenberg also founded the HUB foundation for organoid technology with Dr Hans Clevers, and served on both its Board of Directors and Supervisory Board. As an antibody expert, he is currently the chairman of the board of Forbion’s portfolio company Synox Therapeutics, a board member of Mestag Therapeutics, also in Forbion’s portfolio, and board member of the Forbion European Acquisition Corporation, the Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) raised by Forbion in December 2021. Dr Logtenberg received a PhD in immunology from Utrecht University and did his post-doctoral work at Columbia University, New York. He is currently Professor in Entrepreneurship in the Life Sciences at Utrecht University.

Dr Hayden joins Forbion as an accomplished scientist, physician and serial entrepreneur. He is currently Chief Executive Officer at Forbion’s portfolio company Prilenia, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the urgent mission to develop novel treatments to slow the progression of neurodegenerative diseases and neurodevelopmental disorders such as Huntington disease and ALS. Prior to this, he served as President of Global R&D and Chief Scientific Officer at Teva, where he led the development and approval of approximately 35 new products in major markets. Dr Hayden is the co-founder of five biotechnology companies: Prilenia, NeuroVir Therapeutics, Xenon Pharmaceuticals, Aspreva Pharmaceuticals and 89bio. He currently sits on the boards of several public and private biotech companies. Dr Hayden is a Killam Professor at the University of British Columbia and a Senior Scientist at the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics. He was named one of the 50 Canadians born in the 20th Century who have changed the world and is the most cited author in the world for Huntington disease and ABCA1, having authored over 900 publications.

Dr Michael Hayden, added: “Forbion is one of Europe’s leading life sciences venture capital firms. It has a strong track record of investing in the rare diseases space including neurodegenerative disorders, which I am very passionate about. I am therefore very much looking forward to working with such a respected firm.”

Sander Slootweg, Managing Partner at Forbion also added: “Both Dr Ton Logtenberg and Dr Michael Hayden are highly accomplished in their respective fields of work with decades of experience in the life sciences sector. We are therefore very honoured to be working with both of them as we continue to invest in and support the growing European life sciences sector.”