BIAL with new R&D General Manager

He replaces Patricio Soares da Silva who steps down after more than 25 years leading the company’s R&D programs. Holenz has over 20 years of experience in creating agile and successful R&D organizations. He started in 1998 at Grünenthal Pharmaceuticals (DE). From 2003 to 2006, he served as Head of Medicinal Chemistry of Barcelona-based Laboratórios Esteve. In 2006, Joerg joined AstraZeneca’s CNS/Pain Research Unit in Sweden, as Neuroscience Project Leader. In 2012, Joerg moved to the US as Director for Discovery and Preclinical Sciences within AstraZeneca’s virtual Neuroscience Unit in Boston, and in 2016, he built up the Neuroscience Proof-of-Concept unit for GlaxoSmithKline in Upper Providence, Pennsylvania. In 2018, he came back Grünenthal as SVP Neuroscience based in Cambridge, US, and worked on designing and executing the company’s new R&D organization as well as building the US Grünenthal Pain Innovation Hub.

Holenz holds a Bachelor of Chemistry from the University of Cologne and a Doctor of Organic and Medicinal Chemistry from the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg, Germany.