BerGenBio appoints Cristina Oliva as CMO

Clinical stage biopharmaceutical company BerGenBio has announced the appointment of Cristina Oliva as Chief Medical Officer.

Oliva will head up clinical development of the BerGenBio’s selective AXL inhibitor programs.

The board-certified oncologist has more than 20 years of senior clinical development experience across large pharmaceutical, biotechnology and Clinical Research Organisations (CROs).

Most recently, Oliva was Vice President, Oncology and Head of Oncology Centre of Excellence at IQVIA Ltd, where she led the development of decentralised trials and established and led the IQVIA Oncology Global Scientific Advisory Board.

Oliva also led oncology development programmes for Nordic Nanovector, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithKline and Eli Lilly.

Martin Olin, Chief Executive Officer of BerGenBio, said:

“I’m delighted to welcome Cristina as our new Chief Medical Officer.

“Cristina’s leadership experience within oncology drug development across big pharma, biotech and CRO environments will be instrumental in executing BerGenBio’s development strategy for our AXL inhibitor programs, including our most advanced program bemcentinib, currently in phase II trials.”

Oliva said:

“BerGenBio is on the frontier of developing novel, highly selective AXL inhibitors for the treatment of severe diseases such as oncology and respiratory infections.

“I’m very excited to join BerGenBio at this critical phase and look forward to working with the senior leadership team to help further advance its AXL inhibitor programs.”