Amarna Therapeutics, a privately held biotechnology company developing gene therapies for rare and prevalent diseases, including Hemophilia B, has appointed Henk Streefkerk Chief Executive Officer and Medical Director. He succeeds Steen Klysner, who served as CEO for the past three years. Streefkerk has been Amarna’s medical director since mid-2022.

Streefkerk has had a career as CMO at several biotechs, including PIQUR Therapeutics, Cellprotera and Rivia. He brings over a decade of experience working in big pharma including Novartis, Actelion and Organon. As clinical pharmacologist/safety leader, he led the global product safety team, overseeing safety analyses, regulatory submissions, and post-marketing safety surveillance for a heart failure drug.

“We are very pleased to introduce Henk Streefkerk as our new CEO,” said Thomas Eldered, chairman of Amarna’s supervisory board. “As a Physician Scientist he brings to Amarna a broad and extensive experience in clinical development, health authority negotiations, and other regulatory interactions. Henk will be instrumental in leading Amarna towards the first in human clinical trial.

“I’m thrilled to be joining Amarna as CEO. The company’s team has been working very hard to generate solid translational data,” said Streefkerk. “I look forward to work with them on this next phase of bringing Amarna’s personalized gene therapy product to hemophilia B patients and proving the potential of repeat dosing.”