Moderator

Astrid Joosten

Dutch television personality, presenter and moderator

Astrid Joosten is a well-known anchorwoman for Dutch television. She started her television career in 1984 and has been the host of a number of shows ever since, including informative programs, consumer awareness programs, talk shows, nationwide news events and a famous quiz show.

Alongside her television career, Astrid is a skilled moderator for conferences, specializing in both the medical and the juridical field. She has also written four books: two about forbidden love stories and two on her passion for wine.

Guest speakers/panelists

Bruno Bruins

Minister for Medical Care and Sport of The Netherlands

\Bruno Bruins began his career in 1990 as Assistant Executive Secretary at Westnederland, a district transport company, before becoming traffic and transport adviser to The Hague municipal executive. Following that, Bruno went on to hold various posts including human resources manager at HTM, the city’s public transport company, until 2000 when he joined the municipal executive of The Hague as Deputy Mayor and portfolio holder for Traffic, Transport and Spatial Planning.

In 2006, Bruno was appointed State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science. He then held successive appointments as Acting Mayor of Leidschendam-Voorburg and as the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management’s ‘special envoy’ for Randstad issues. In 2008 Bruno returned to the private sector as a member of the executive board of the transport company ConnexxioN, before becoming Chairman of the executive board of the Employee Insurance Agency (UWV) in 2012.

In October 2017, Bruno was appointed Minister for Medical Care in the third Rutte Government.

Jayasree K. Iyer

Executive Director, Access to Medicine Foundation, based in The Netherlands

As Executive Director, Dr Jayasree Iyer leads the strategic direction and stakeholder engagement of the Access to Medicine Foundation an independent non-profit organization based in the Netherlands. The Foundation’s mission is to stimulate and guide pharmaceutical companies to do more for the people living in low- and middle-income countries without access to medicine. Jayasree directs the research programs for the Antimicrobial Resistance Benchmark, the Access to Medicine Index, the Access to Vaccines Index, and specific studies into priority health topics.

Before joining the Foundation, Jayasree spent four years managing a portfolio of more than 25 public-private partnerships between the Dutch government and the pharmaceutical industry, totaling a research budget of €150 million. These partnerships addressed cancer, immunology and neglected diseases. Jayasree has worked for various non-government organizations and academic institutions, and was part of the founding team of a diagnostic service company in the US.

Pierre Meulien

Executive Director, Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), Belgium

Dr Pierre Meulien is Executive Director of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), a €5 billion public-private partnership between the European Union and the European pharmaceutical industry. He is responsible for the overall management of the program, which works to improve and accelerate the drug development process by facilitating collaboration between the key players involved in health research.

Previously, Pierre was president and CEO of Genome Canada where he raised funding and oversaw the launch of novel projects and networks in the field of genomics-based technologies. Prior to that, he was Chief Scientific Officer for Genome British Columbia and was the founding CEO of the Dublin Molecular Medicine Center. Pierre has also worked with the French biotechnology company Transgene, as well as with Aventis Pasteur (now Sanofi Pasteur).

Ab Osterhaus

Director, Research Center for Emerging Infections and Zoonoses (RIZ), University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Germany

Professor Ab Osterhaus is Head of Virology at Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, where he has guided a multidisciplinary team of over 100 ‘viroscience’ colleagues to discover more than 50 human and animal viruses and develop innovative intervention strategies. He has helped national and international health authorities such as the World Health Organization combat emerging infections like SARS, MERS and avian influenza.

Currently Ab is Professor and Founding Director of the Research Center for Emerging Infections and Zoonoses, (RIZ) at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hannover. He also holds the post of Chair of the European Scientific Working Group on Influenza (ESWI) and Co-founder of the International One Health Platform Foundation. Alongside these, Ab holds several senior editorships, has published more than 1,200 papers, trained over 80 PhDs, is a member of the Dutch and German National Academies of Sciences, and Commander of the Order of the Dutch Lion.

Internal speakers

Johan Van Hoof

Global Therapeutic Area Head Infectious Diseases and Vaccines,

Managing Director, Janssen Vaccines & Prevention B.V.

Johan Van Hoof M.D. joined the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies in April 2005 as Vice President, Data Management and Early Clinical Development. Following roles as Chief Operating Officer of Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research, LLC, and Head of the Global Development Organization, he was appointed Global Therapeutic Area Head for Infectious Diseases and Vaccines in 2010. Since 2011, Johan has been overseeing Research and Development at Janssen Vaccines & Prevention B.V. as Managing Director.

Before joining the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies, Johan acquired more than 20 years’ experience in the vaccine industry, having worked with Pasteur Mérieux Connaught, Chiron Vaccines and GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals. Johan was actively involved in the development and licensing of a new generation of childhood and adult vaccines in disease areas such as pertussis (pediatric combined vaccines), meningitis, rotaviral diarrhea, hepatitis, flu and HPV.

Sonja Willems

Managing Director, Janssen Benelux

Sonja Willems began her career at Eli Lilly and joined Janssen in 1987 in the International Marketing Department in Beerse. She then worked in Canada, taking up new business responsibilities for CNS, before moving back to Beerse to play an instrumental role in the early development of Risperdal Consta and Xeplion within the Psychiatry franchise.

From there, Sonja moved to the Janssen EMEA organization to lead the European launch of Reminyl in Alzheimer dementia, then to Janssen Germany to lead the OBI/Tibotec business and the launch of the HIV compounds. In 2007 Sonja moved to the Johnson & Johnson Medical Device unit as Managing Director of the Ethicon Products business in Germany and the lead for the Suture Production site and Mesh Research Center, before leading the integration of the entire Ethicon Franchise in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

From 2012 until 2018, Sonja was President of pharma.be, the Belgian pharmaceutical association. She was instrumental in the development and signage of the ‘Pact of the Future’ with the Belgian Government in 2015, which sets out the future policy lines for the industry. In 2014, Sonja was appointed to the Board of Directors of Janssen Pharmaceutica.

Paul Korte

Director External Affairs, Janssen Netherlands

Paul Korte is pharmacist by education. He has been with Janssen for 22 years and held various national and international marketing positions before he became Board Member of Janssen Netherlands.

Currently, Paul is board member of Janssen Benelux and responsible for external affairs and governmental relations for the Janssen companies in the Netherlands, representing Janssen in front of governmental and political stakeholders. Since 2016, he has also acted as President of the Board of the Dutch Trade Association for the Innovative Pharmaceutical Industry.

Hanneke Schuitemaker

Global Head Viral Vaccine Discovery and Translational Medicine, Janssen

Hanneke Schuitemaker is the Global Head of Viral Vaccine Discovery and Translational Medicine in the Infectious Disease and Vaccines Therapeutic Area of Janssen Vaccines and a member of the Global Public Health Senior Leadership Team. Alongside these appointments, Hanneke is also a Professor in Virology at the Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam and a member of the scientific advisory board of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI).

At Janssen Vaccines, Hanneke is responsible for the portfolio of viral vaccine programs in discovery and early development phase, including prophylactic and/or therapeutic vaccine candidates for Multivalent filovirus, Ebola, HIV, RSV, sIPV and HPV.

Dirk Redlich

Head of Vaccine Process and Analytical Development, Janssen

Dirk Redlich joined the Janssen Research Foundation in 2001 to lead the analytical method development. He then went on to lead activities in various areas of pharmaceutical drug development, ranging from analytical and formulation development to program management and process excellence, and also served as Strategy and Operations Leader.

In 2011, Dirk became Head of Program Management and Strategy and Operations. Currently, he serves as the Global Head of the Technical Development Organization for Vaccines.

Paul Ives

Senior Director Drug Substance Development, Janssen

Paul Ives is Senior Director Drug Substance Development at Janssen Vaccines and Prevention. He is a cell physiologist by training, with more than 20 years of experience in managing process development, commercial manufacturing and filling operations, and engineering for vaccines, biopharmaceuticals, proteins and antibiotics.

In his current role, Paul is responsible for the development and scale up of the Adeno manufacturing process technology, which is the foundation for the PerC6^® cell line technology owned by Janssen. In 2014, when the Ebola outbreak was on the increase and Johnson & Johnson responded by accelerating development of its adeno-based Zaire vaccine, it was the Paul’s group that led the response and produced the first clinical trial material.

In addition, Paul is the Chair of the CMC Council of Janssen Vaccines and Prevention, a member of the Vaccine Development Committee, and represents vaccine interests in the Parenteral Platform working on the interface with Janssen Supply Chain (JSC) and Pharmaceutical Development and Manufacturing Sciences (PDMS).

Erik van Veldhoven

Director Vaccines Launch Facility, Janssen

Erik van Veldhoven, a mechanical engineer by training, is Director of the new Vaccines Launch Facility. He has over 20 years of experience in various engineering and managerial roles at companies such as Fuji and Pfizer.

Erik joined Janssen Vaccines in 2009 as Project Manager for the introduction of disposable technology. He then became Head of the Engineering and Maintenance department, where he played a lead role in integrating the Janssen Vaccines site in Leiden into the Johnson & Johnson family of companies. In December 2016, Erik became head of the Vaccines Launch Facility, leading the first vaccine manufacturing plant at large scale within the Janssen network.