– Key roles reinforce Oasmia’s capacity to progress and expand its clinical-stage oncology portfolio
Solna, Sweden, August 26, 2021 – Oasmia Pharmaceutical AB, an oncology-focused specialty pharmaceutical company, today announces the appointments of Kia Bengtsson as Head of Clinical Development and Johanna Röstin as Head of Regulatory Affairs with effect from October 1, 2021. The appointments significantly strengthen Oasmia’s internal drug development expertise as the company progresses its portfolio of cancer therapies through the clinic and evaluates opportunities to further expand the pipeline through M&A and in-licensing.
Kia Bengtsson commented: “Oasmia is building a strong oncology-focused business, with important international clinical studies underway and clear ambitions to build a broad cancer portfolio. I look forward to joining the company at this exciting time and to supporting its growth strategy.”
Kia Bengtsson was previously Director, Drug Development, at the Swedish nanotechnology company Nanologica, with responsibility for pre-clinical and clinical development. In more than 20 years at leading pharma and biotech companies, Kia has worked on the development of innovative therapies including Somatuline™ for the treatment of neuroendocrine tumors and Decapeptyl™ for the treatment of prostate cancer. She held leading positions in drug development and clinical operations at Ipsen, AstraZeneca and Eurocine Vaccines. Kia began her career as a registered nurse at Karolinska University Hospital.
Johanna Röstin said: “Oasmia is putting in place a first-class in-house team to help it bring new options to patients with ovarian and prostate cancer and to expand its portfolio of innovative products. This is a great opportunity to help build a leading oncology company focused on innovation.”
Johanna Röstin joins Oasmia from OxThera AB, where she is Director of CMC, Program Management and Regulatory. Johanna spent 10 years at Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (Sobi), where she was regulatory responsible for one of Sobi’s leading biological products commercialized in the EU and US as Global Senior Regulatory Affairs Manager. She was Regulatory CMC expert for commercial- and development-stage biological products. She has also worked for Pharmacia and Biovitrum. Johanna has an M.Sc in chemical engineering / biotechnology and a Licentiate degree in biotechnology from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
Dr Heidi Ramstad, Chief Medical Officer at Oasmia, commented: ’’We are delighted to welcome Kia and Johanna to Oasmia as we enter a new phase of clinical development with our oncology portfolio. We’ll also benefit from their extensive industry experience as we continue to broaden our pipeline and establish Oasmia as a leading, sustainable oncology company focused on bringing new treatment approaches to patients’’.
For More Information:
Oasmia Pharmaceutical AB
Francois Martelet, Chief Executive Officer
Phone: +46 18-50 54 40
E-mail: IR@oasmia.com
Consilium Strategic Communications
Jonathan Birt, Chris Welsh, Ashley Tapp
Phone: +44 (0)20 3709 5700
E-mail: oasmia@consilium-comms.com
About Oasmia Pharmaceutical AB
Oasmia is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development of new therapeutic options for patients suffering from hard-to-treat cancers. It has an emerging pipeline of clinical-stage assets targeting late-stage cancers. Apealea® (paclitaxel micellar) is being made available to ovarian cancer patients through a partnership with Elevar Therapeutics, Inc. Development programs include Cantrixil, in clinical development for late-stage ovarian cancer, and docetaxel micellar, in development for advanced prostate cancer. Oasmia has proprietary drug delivery technology designed to improve solubility, efficacy and safety. Oasmia’s shares are traded on Nasdaq Stockholm (OASM). To find out more about Oasmia please visit www.vivesto.com.