Prof. Erik de Clercq

Professor De Clercq received his M.D. degree in 1966 and his Ph.D. in 1972 both at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U.Leuven) in Belgium. After having spent two years at Stanford University Medical School as a postdoctoral fellow, he returned to the K.U.Leuven Medical School, where he became docent (assistant professor) in 1973, professor in 1975, and full professor in 1977. In 1985, he became President of the Rega Foundation and, in 1986, Chairman of the Directory Board of the Rega Institute for Medical Research.
He is a titular member of the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine and the Academia Europaea, and has also held the Prof. P. De Somer Chair of Microbiology at the K.U.Leuven.
Prof. De Clercq's scientific achievements are in the antiviral chemotherapy field, and, in particular, the development of new antiviral agents for the treatment of various viral infections, including AIDS. He has (co)-discovered a number of antiviral drugs, currently used in the treatment of various virus infections, such as herpes simplex (valaciclovir), herpes zoster (brivudin), AIDS (stavudine), CMV (cytomegalovirus) infections (cidofovir), HBV (hepatitis B virus) infections (adefovir), and HIV infections (AIDS) (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate), marketed as VireadTM, and, in combination with emtricitabine, as TruvadaTM.

Georges Haas

Georges Haas had a distinguished 27-year career with Ciba-Geigy Pharmaceuticals. In his final position as Head of Worldwide Pharmaceutical Research and Preclinical Development, he was responsible for over 2000 employees in Europe, Japan and the United States. Currently, he works with a select group of venture capital backed companies. Dr. Haas received his doctorate in chemistry from the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, and completed his postdoctoral training at Cornell University. He also completed management training at the Harvard Business School.