BioNet-Asia, a Thai company focused on vaccine discovery and supply, has appointed Georges Thiry as COO. He takes up the role early in 2015 and replaces Dario Cresci who established BioNet's manufacturing site and completed the upscale of the company's first key vaccines.
Cresci will remain on the company's Advisory Committee.
Thiry is currently Director of the Dengue Vaccine Initiative and Chairman of the Product Development Team for the Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative. He has spent the last 30 years in vaccine research and development. He was formerly Director of Projects at GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals before joining several public institutions such as the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, PATH and the International Vaccine Institute. At PATH, a global health organisation, he also led several public private partnerships for the development of new rotavirus vaccines in developing countries.
For nearly ten years, BioNet has been working on the development of a new recombinant pertussis (RP) vaccine. All licensed acellular pertussis (aP) vaccines currently use a detoxified pertussis toxin which is denatured by the use of chemicals.
The BioNet RP vaccine contains a genetically-engineered non-toxic pertussis toxin, which could potentially be the solution to the re-emergence of pertussis (whooping cough) in many developed countries.
