Extended Management

Lubor Gaal is a distinguished figure in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. He currently serves as the Global Head of Business Development at Swiss Rockets and its subsidiary companies. With a career spanning over 25 years, Gaal has demonstrated exceptional expertise and leadership in various capacities across renowned organizations.

Dr. Aurélie Jenn, Head of Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance, is a pharmacist (Pharm. D) bringing over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. In a first part of her career, she worked in Regulatory Affairs / CMC writing for generic products and New Chemical Entities in Switzerland and France, having close interactions and providing support to technical departments.

Debora Foglia joined the company as Legal Counsel of Swiss Rockets AG and its subsidiary companies in January 2023. She is an attorney-at-law and holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in law of the University of Basel.

Dr. Christoph Heusser, Head of Immunology, is an immunology expert who pioneered antibody-based therapies and antibody-mediated effector functions. He was Head of Immunology at Ciba-Geigy and Head of the Transplantation- Immunology Unit at Novartis and gave lectures on antibody-based interventions at the University Basel for 15 years.

Michel Petignat, Head of Human Resources, is a qualified HR Specialist in the Life Sciences industry. During his long and outstanding professional career, Michel worked as an HR Manager in leading pharma and biotech companies such as Sandoz, Novartis Pharma, Syngenta Crop Protection and Actelion Pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Frugier is an experienced patent manager and a qualified European Patent Attorney with a focus on supporting small to mid-sized biotech entities in protecting and securing access to intellectual property assets critical to their competitiveness and fundraising.

Dr. Bernhard Hostettler, Head of Intellectual Property, originally is an organic chemist. After his Ph.D. at ETH Zürich, Bernhard was active in research for more than 20 years with companies Roche, CIBA, Syngenta and Givaudan.

David Allman is a biochemist by training and has over 25 years of global experience in the pharmaceutical industry having worked for pharmaceutical companies and leading clinical research organizations as well as applying his expertise in the virtual development arena.

Dr. Robert Ettlin is the Head of Preclinical Safety in Swiss Rockets. After some years in toxicological pathology at F. Hoffmann La Roche Ltd., Ettlin joined Sandoz Ltd. in Basel, where he advanced to Head of Toxicology and later Head of Development Operations Switzerland.

Dr. Zoltan Sümeghy holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Technical University of Budapest, where he previously studied Biochemical Engineering. Dr. Sümeghy started his career as a Lab Head at the Biotechnology Research Department, where he was responsible for USP development for all cell culture projects including scale-up, as well as for establishing the first development and GMP facility for cell cultures at Sandoz.

Jörg Honegger, a highly experienced attorney with over 30 years of practical legal experience in consulting and litigation, has been serving as interim General Counsel of Swiss Rockets Incubator and its subsidiary companies.