ROTTERDAM, May 12, 2023 - Pan Cancer T B.V., a biotech spin-off from Erasmus MC dedicated to the discovery and development of next-generation TCR-T therapies against solid tumors, today announces the appointment of Dr. Rachel Abbott as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Rachel steps up from her current role as Pan Cancer T’s Chief Scientific Officer (CSO), succeeding Katrien Reynders-Frederix who has served as CEO since the company’s inception.
Katrien has played a pivotal role in building Pan Cancer T. She started the company in 2020, together with co-founders Prof. Reno Debets and Dr. Dora Hammerl, and has led its transformation from an academic scientific concept to a focused industrial company. Under her leadership, the company has developed a first T cell receptor (TCR) against a novel tumor target that shows real promise in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) preclinical models.
“I am very proud of what we achieved with Pan Cancer T over the last years, and I want to express a warm thank you to my colleagues, Board and Investors for their contributions, resilience, and dedication. While the time has come for me to explore new opportunities, I have no doubt that under the leadership of Rachel, this company will continue to thrive and achieve great things in bringing transformational medicines to patients,” said Katrien Reynders-Frederix.
“I am very honoured to accept the Supervisory Board’s and shareholders’ offer to lead Pan Cancer T and I look forward to building on the strong foundation laid by Katrien,” said Rachel Abbott. “Recent clinical advances have shown that TCR-T cell therapies can have a profound benefit for patients with solid cancers. I am excited to work with the team to progress our lead candidate PCT-1 to the clinic for the treatment of TNBC patients, a relatively young patient population not served by current clinical TCR-T products. Furthermore, I am enthusiastic about our future pipeline, which should enable us to bring innovative therapies to more patients with multiple solid tumors. A particular highlight is our novel next generation engineering strategy with potential to enhance the durability of TCR-T, which will be applicable to a broad range of TCRs beyond PCT-1.”
John Tchelingerian, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Pan Cancer T, expressed gratitude to Katrien for her leadership and dedication to the company. “On behalf of the Supervisory Board, I want to thank Katrien for her entrepreneurship, dedication and significant contributions, which have taken Pan Cancer T from its very early beginnings to this point, where the company is looking to progress its first product candidate to the clinic. We wish Katrien all the best in her future endeavours. Under Rachel's leadership, the company is well-positioned to rapidly grow into a clinical stage company and continue its focus on developing new TCR-based cancer treatments. We look forward as a Supervisory Board to working with Rachel and supporting her in the transformation of PCT as a leading player in the field.”