About us

ABOUT US

SigmaThera, founded in 2016, is a European Biotech company that has a portfolio of compounds that are targeted at a variety of Neurodegenerative Disorders through a highly innovative transnosological approach.

Our Management Team

SigmaThera's management team is currently composed of experts with decades of leadership experience in successful drug development and in the pharmaceutical industry. 
In order to be very cost effective, SigmaThera follows an efficient lean management strategy. In addition to the key expertise of its Management Team, SigmaThera outsources all highly specific tasks to expert partners in their field. 

Dr. François ROMAN
CEO

Dr. Roman graduated from INSA Lyon in Biological Chemistry and completed a  PhD in Biochemistry from Pierre and Marie Curie University Paris in Biochemistry. He has extended experience in Drug Discovery and worked over the last decades for major pharmaceutical groups.
His excellence allowed him to occupy highest functions in major pharmaceutical groups. Ogeda/Euroscreen: VP R&D, Pfizer: Director of HTS and Assay Development, Head of Molecular Pharmacology, Jouveinal: Director of Biochemistry. 
In 2009, Dr. Roman founded Amylgen, a CRO for preclinical studies specialized in neurological disorders which is one of the market leaders in France for Alzheimers, Parkinson's, ALS, schizophrenia, depression, addiction, anxiety models. 

Dr. Andy MacELROY
Drug development

Dr. McElroy graduated from Churchill College Cambridge with a first class degree in Natural Sciences and completed a PhD in synthetic organic chemistry before joining Glaxo as a medicinal chemist. He spent seven years working on CNS targets and then three years as the lead chemist on Cardiovascular projects.
Dr. McElroy joined Pfizer as a manager in the Medicinal Chemistry department. He became Therapeutic Area Lead for Cardiovascular and Neurodegeneration Research, and later on Tissue Repair managing a portfolio of projects up to First in Human. 
In 2011, he founded TRN – The Research Network Ltd, an associate network of Drug Discovery specialists focused on enabling Drug Discovery and Development to support early Drug Discovery and Development ventures.

Dr. Vanessa VILLARD
Preclinical studies

Dr. Villard graduated with INSERM with specialization on sigma1 receptors. 
She wrote her doctoral thesis about the anti-amnesic and neuroprotective effects of Sigma-1 receptor ligands. 
She co-founded Amylgen, a CRO for preclinical studies specialized in neurological disorders which is one of the market leaders in France for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS, depression, addiction, anxiety and  schizophrenia models. 
Dr. Villard has also an MBA degree from Montpellier Business school that helps her managing  scientific issues including business aspects. 
She is used to work with multidisciplinary teams in international collaborations with institutes and drug development industries. 

Alexander PREGIZER
Strategy & business development

Mr. Pregizer is a successful entrepreneur in the medical and sports sector with focus on biosensors and diagnostic devices and mental health. 
He is strongly focused on a value creating approach for SigmaThera and drives the company to its best potential through his extended network in the pharmaceutical sector. 

Key hiring needs
Over the next 6-36 months

SigmaThera will have several key hiring needs for the clinical trials project management and also for some specific scientific research that we will cover at near project stages. 

Our Scientific Advisory Board Members

Our scientific advisory board is composed of internationally renown experts with decades of leadership experience in drug development in the fields of neurodegenerative diseases. These experts that have themselves extended networks helping us to reach our targets. 

Prof. Olivier 
BLIN

Prof. Blin graduated from Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI) and Ecole Centrale Paris with MD, Ph.D, MBA degrees. 
He occupies currently the function of Head Clinical Pharmacology & Pharmacovigilance 
University Hospital Marseille, and is also coordinator of DHUNE, one of the most advanced French organizations in Neurodegenerative Diseases and Aging. 
Prof. Blin is also a professor at the Aix Marseille University for both Clinical Pharmacology and public affairs. He is President Section X Scientific Council of High Committee for Strategic Research And Training and Member Research WP, National Plan for Neurodegenerative Diseases 2014. He is also the Head OrphanDev, an infrastructure of F-CRIN (French Clinical Research Infrastructure Network) that works in collaboration with all national structures actors in rare diseases. Prof. Blin worked also in the private sector among others for GSK in discovery medicine. 

Prof. Jacques TOUCHON

Prof. Touchon got his Medical Degree and his specialty in Neurology from the Medical School of Montpellier. He has been a Professor of Neurology at the Medical School University and was Dean of the School of Medicine for 10 years. He has been the Chief of Neurology at the Montpellier University Research Hospital. 
Prof. Touchon has been the coordinator of the INSERM UNIT 1061 – CHU La Colombière- Montpellier France. This research unit has for objectives to better understand the underlying mechanisms of neuropsychiatric diseases and improve the care management of patients affected by these pathologies. 
Prof. Touchon is also director of the CNRMAJ: National Referent Center for Young Adults with Alzheimer’s Disease and has been the director of the Center for Memory Resources and Research (CMRR) for the Languedoc-Roussillon region. 
Prof. Touchon has been awarded the academic palms for his research on Alzheimer’s Disease, the Pinel Prize and was the recipient of the Légion d’Honneur.

Dr. Cédric 
RAOUL

Dr. Raoul has a Ph.D degree in Neuroscience
with INSERM UMR382, the Developmental Biology Institute of Marseille. 
He worked then as post-doctoral fellow in the Brain Mind Institute, Laboratory of Neurodegenerative disease at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) and joined INSERM-Avenir as a team leader at the Mediterranean Institute of Neurobiology, INSERM UMR901. 
Today he is team leader in the Motoneuron Team at the Neuroscience Institute of Montpellier, INSERM UMR1051, Saint Eloi Hospital, Montpellier, France. 
The mission of his team is to understand how the cellular environment contributes to the degeneration of motoneurons in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and to develop impacting therapeutic approaches through the identification of the most pertinent site of therapeutic intervention. He focuses on an integrated view of the dialogue between motoneurons, astrocytes, sensory interneurons and immune cells during the neurodegenerative process, promoting translational clinical research by evaluating the clinical relevance of our findings in human ALS. 

Extended scientific advisory board

SigmaThera is in discussion with additional Scientific Advisory Board members for specific research areas and NDDs. 
The Scientific Advisory Board will constantly grow, as SigmaThera targets with SIT161 a wide range of diseases and will work with major experts in these additional fields.  



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