LYON, France– Osta Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing smart drugs to fight antibiotic resistance, today announced the appointments of Dr. Gilles Courtemanche as Senior Scientific Advisor and Dr. Nicolas Guyon-Gellin as Chief Business Officer. Both bring substantial experience from the pharmaceutical industry that will support the company on its mission to develop first-in-class antibiotics that target novel mechanisms to overcome the growing issue of antibiotic resistance. By leveraging the company’s proprietary OSTA (On-Site-Target-Activated) approach, active pharmaceutical ingredients are delivered to the target and activated by the pathogens themselves. Osta’s lead candidate, OSTA27, targets Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAb) infections and is currently in preclinical development.
“We welcome these two seasoned experts to the Osta team. Their valuable experience in drug development and business development will be crucial in further defining our corporate strategy and supporting our efforts to move our lead candidate towards IND-enabling studies, while we continue developing our portfolio with new active ingredients, effective on bacteria responsible for other infectious diseases,” commented Jacques Samarut, Chief Executive Officer of Osta. “I look forward to working with both of them towards our vision of battling antibiotic resistance.”
Dr. Gilles Courtemanche brings more than 20 years of experience in drug development from positions at Rhône-Poulenc, Sanofi, and Synthelabo. Most recently, he held the position of Associate Director, Antimicrobials Unit Head at Bioaster, where he was responsible for the development of new technologies capable of accelerating the discovery of new antimicrobials. Dr. Courtemanche also leads CDDC, a consultancy that supports biotech companies by refining their scientific and R&D strategy and establishing critical relationships with industry and academic experts. He holds a PhD in chemistry from the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris.
Dr. Nicolas Guyon-Gellin brings more than 18 years of experience in biotech industry and global healthcare financial markets to Osta Therapeutics. Most recently, he has served as Chief Business officer at Calypso Biotech, which was acquired by Novartis in 2024. He also was the VP Corporate Development & Strategy at ENYO Pharma. Prior to that he held multiple roles in equity research analysis at Morgan Stanley London, Exane BNP and Amundi Paris. Dr. Guyon-Gellin holds an M.D. from Université Paris Descartes (Paris V) as well as an MBA from ESCP Business School.
