Symeres, a leading transatlantic CRDMO for drug discovery and development, today announced the appointment of Henning Steinhagen as Chief Executive Officer, marking a key transition as the company scales its operations and broadens its market reach.
Dr. Steinhagen succeeds Guillaume Jetten, who has served as CEO and played a key role in strengthening the company’s operational and scientific foundations during a period of growth and transformation.
The appointment marks a planned transition in leadership structure to continue to build on the company’s success. A combination of organic growth and targeted acquisitions has led Symeres to evolve into a fully integrated transatlantic partner, bringing together more than 500 scientists across nine global sites with decades of multidisciplinary expertise in chemistry, biology, ADME-tox and CMC. Dr Steinhagen has a strong scientific background and commercial experience to drive positive business impact for Symeres in its next phase of growth.
Building on this foundation, Dr. Steinhagen will focus on advancing Symeres’ vision of being a crucial partner from discovery through development with its “One Symeres” integrated platform that serves strategic partnerships across biotech and pharma. His scientific background also aligns with the company’s widely recognised scientific expertise.
As a seasoned CEO, board director and R&D executive, Dr. Steinhagen brings more than 25 years of experience across pharma, biotech and the CRO/CDMO sector. He joins from Lario Therapeutics, where he served as CEO and co-founder, as well as Venture Partner at Epidarex Capital. His previous positions include President R&D at Aptuit, where he was a key member of the leadership team responsible for the company’s growth and successful sale to Evotec AG in 2017. Prior to that he acted as SVP and Head of Global Drug Discovery at Grünenthal and held senior roles at Sanofi-Aventis and Bayer Pharma.
Henning Steinhagen holds a PhD in Chemistry and earned an executive MBA degree from the IMD in Lausanne in 2018.
“I was drawn to Symeres because of its unique capabilities and legacy in delivering and supporting biopharma from inception to IND,” said Dr. Steinhagen. “The team brings together deep scientific depth and a way of working that is genuinely collaborative and responsive.”
He added: “With strong foundations in place, the opportunity ahead is to fully realize and unlock the power of integrated services across chemistry and biology. The goal is to create best-in-class solutions to rapidly advance even the most challenging programs for the benefit of our customers and ultimately patients.”
“Recently, we have made strong progress in bringing together our teams, capabilities and culture into one organization,” said Guillaume Jetten. “We are now seeing clear validation from our customers, who value the continuity, scientific depth and collaborative approach we offer. I’m proud of what we’ve achieved and confident that Dr. Steinhagen will build on this momentum and lead Symeres through its next phase of growth.”
