About us

sales, and business development within the pharmaceutical industry, including 13 years based in Japan. In May 2023, Pierre was appointed Chief Business Officer. Prior to this role, he served as Chief Commercial Officer and Vice President of Business Development at Abivax. Before joining Abivax in April 2015, he was the Senior Vice President of sales and marketing for Guerbet, as well as the CEO of MEDEX (a medical devices company owned by Guerbet) starting in 2012. From 2009, Pierre served as the Vice President of Sales for Asia, Latin America, and EMEA, where he was responsible for the management of subsidiaries and agents, achieving the ambitious objective of optimizing commercial performance across these regions. As President of Guerbet Japan and Vice President for Guerbet Asia, Pierre successfully managed the rollout of its Japanese subsidiary and led the development of other branches in Asia. Pierre holds a pharmacy degree, a Master’s Degree in Company Management (IAE), a Master’s Degree in Biological and Medical Sciences, and an MBA with Honors from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He previously served as Vice President and Treasurer of France Biotech. Currently, he is the President of both the “Chicago Booth Alumni Club of France” and “The University of Chicago Alumni Association of France

Atlanpol an interregional competitiveness cluster covering the Pays de la Loire, Brittany, and Centre-Val de Loire regions. Within this framework, she redirected her professional path to focus on the valorization of new technologies in the field of health. For over 20 years, she led various innovative biotechnology companies.
In 2016, she assumed the presidency of France Biotech and, in this capacity, initiated the creation of the HealthTech Innovation Days (HTID) in 2019. In 2020, she took on the presidency of the HealthTech For Care endowment fund, whose mission is to accelerate the development of European health innovations to make them accessible to all patients. To date, Maryvonne has become the Honorary President of HealthTech For Care.

Elsy created Bio-Up to combine her strategic expertise and her passion for solving operational challenges that typically face HealthTech companies. Her portfolio of activities allows her to fully leverage the wealth of her past experiences, including the coaching and sounding-board role she used to play as a BCG Partner and Managing Director.

Before she created Bio-Up, Elsy was Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer at Cellectis, a French biotechnology company focused on gene editing and its applications in oncology. At Cellectis she led various strategic and operational functions: strategy, business development, clinical trials program management, as well as manufacturing, with the objective of building in-house capacity.

Prior to joining Cellectis, Elsy worked at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) for 12 years. She served as Partner and Managing Director in the Paris Office, was the leader of BCG’s biotech-focused business in Europe. She worked closely with biotech and pharma companies on topics such as specialty product launch optimization, partnering and M&A.

Elsy graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, France and holds a master’s degree in economy and management from the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain. She also completed a College degree in Immuno-oncology at Institut Gustave Roussy in Paris, France.

In the past few years she was selected to be a Young Leader of the French American Foundation in 2018, was part of the Choiseul ranking of top Young French Economic Leaders (2019, 2020), and was among the Women’s Forum Rising Talents’ promotion of 2018. Beyond her work at Bio-Up, Elsy is passionate about education and sits on the Board of an International School, and she is also committed to helping women succeed in business. For example, as part of the Women2Women 8200 program, she mentors young women from the elite 8200 Israeli army unit.

Damien Catoir has more than 15 years of experience in banking and in major law firms, both in France and in the United States. He joined the corporate world in 2018 within the Atos Group, where he was General Counsel and Secretary to the Board of Directors. As part of his missions, he guided Ajos in the negotiation of strategic partnerships, major contracts and significant M&A transactions. He also piloted complex litigations and important corporate reorganizations. Damien Catoir is a member of the New York and Paris bars. He holds a Master in Management from ESSEC Business School and studied cognitive psychology and neurosciences at École Normale Supérieure. He also holds a Master’s degree in General Private Law from University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and a Juris Doctor degree from Cornell Law School.  

he has a double degree from the Skema Business School with a Master of Science in Management and Strategy as well as a Specialized Master’s degree in Knowledge Management and Competitive Intelligence.

He began his career at Axa in Life Insurance. He then joined a national health innovation cluster in Paris to provide a scientific, technological, and economic watch service to develop and finance innovative health projects and to support companies internationally, especially in the middle east and the US. He continued his career at Allianz Global Healthcare in the international affinity life insurance and reinsurance department. He now serves as Deputy Director at Eit Health France, an Horizon Europe funding Instrument of the European Commission gathering a community of 100 European and international organisations and which has invested more than 250 million euros, trained more than 70,000 people and accelerated more than 1,600 start-ups in innovation in health in Europe since its incorporation in 2016.

(innovative medicines, generic medicines, biosimilars, medical devices) and different types of companies (multinationals, family, SMEs, biotech). Frédéric Girard is today Senior Vice President, European Development Operations, for DBV Technologies.

Frédéric Girard is also Vice-President of France Biotech, where he leads the Market Access Working Group. France Biotech, founded in 1997, is an independent association which brings together healthcare innovation entrepreneurs and their expert partners.

Finally, Frédéric Girard is Foreign Trade Advisor, where he chairs the Health Expertise Group and the Mentoring Expertise Group.

Philippe Monteyne has extensive and highly successful experience as a life sciences investor and pharmaceutical professional. Before joining Aliath, Philippe has been a Senior Partner of the private equity fund Fund+ in Belgium, having contributed to multiple investments including very profitable ones.
Philippe Monteyne is a Neurologist and holds a PhD in viral immunology from the Catholic University of Louvain and a postdoctoral degree in neuroimmunology from the Pasteur Institute in Paris.
Dr. Monteyne has held senior positions in SmithKline Beecham, GSK, and Sanofi. He served as the Head of Global Vaccine Development at GSK for several years, and then served as Senior VP-Head of Development and CMO at GSK Rare Diseases from 2010 to 2012.
Amongst his achievements, was the development and launch of GSK’s Cervical Cancer Vaccine, Cervarix, the R&D work that allowed to develop Strimvelis and Tegsedi (gene therapy and oligonucleotide in rare diseases).
He also served as Vice President R&D France at Sanofi until early 2015. During that period, he was also Board Member of SARD (Sanofi Aventis R&D), of the LEEM (Pharmaceutical association in France “Les Entreprises du Médicament”​), of the Bioaster Insitute in Lyon, and of the « Fondation Plan Alzheimer France ».
He is a Board Director of several Biotech companies, in Belgium, France and Spain. Dr. Monteyne was also visiting Professor of Neurology at the UCL (Université Catholique de Louvain), and is part-time Professor and course coordinator of an Advanced Master in Biotech & MedTech Ventures at Solvay Management School, Brussels.

Prior to Sofinnova, Cedric was managing director and head of healthcare in the corporate finance department at Oddo BHF. In 2017, Oddo BHF was the top ranked firm for European biotech equity capital market deals. Prior to this, he was director at Bryan Garnier & Co where he completed several sizable cross-border transactions, including Galapagos, DBV, Ablynx, and Celyad. In total, he has managed more than 2 billion euros in European healthcare transactions. Cedric brings to the Sofinnova Crossover team and to his portfolio companies, a deep transactional expertise in the biopharma industry, as well as an extensive network of key opinion leaders, bankers and lawyers. Cedric was well known to the Sofinnova team before he came onboard, having executed several mandates for the firm’s portfolio companies. Before his corporate finance career, Cedric spent 10 years as a healthcare equity analyst, and was several times EXTEL top ranked (awarded for both individual and team performances) at Natixis and Fortis. He was in charge of coverage of listed biotech and pharma companies. Cedric holds a Master’s in Economics and post-graduate diploma in Finance and Taxation (Sorbonne) and diploma from the Société Française des Analystes Financiers (SFAF)

Director at Institut Pasteur, Founding Partner of Biotech Development Consulting and Chairman of Cellectis.
He is today Chairman of Theradiag and Panntherapi, Director and Treasurer of ATF/Technion, Senior Partner of Global Close Alliances, Senior Advisor of Vivalto Partners, Board Member of Vidac Pharma and Vice-President of HTFC.

She is the driving force behind the creation of several regional and national patient support associations and recognized inter-associative events labeled by the Ministry of Health. She continues to be involved in the nonprofit sector and currently holds the position of vice-president of the Cancer Contribution association and project manager for a collective named GPS CANCER.

She served as co-chair of the first regional user committee in Brittany and, in that capacity, sat on various regional commissions. She has also participated in working groups at the French National Authority for Health (HAS) and the French National Cancer Institute (INCA).

In 2017, she enrolled in the Patients University at Sorbonne University and obtained a university diploma in “patient pathway support in oncology,” followed by a diploma in “health democracy” in 2018, and also pursued training in therapeutic patient education. In 2019, she decided to establish a health consulting agency, “Patient Expertise,” to support healthcare companies, startups, medical training centers, associations, healthcare facilities, and research centers in implementing projects aimed at improving healthcare pathways and outcomes. She is actively involved in France Biotech, where she currently serves on the board of directors and co-coordinates the “Patient Caregiver Family Caregiver” working group. Additionally, she assists the Paris Saclay Cancer Cluster in managing its patient committee.

Françoise Sellin’s numerous past and present activities have enabled her to acquire a deep understanding of the healthcare ecosystem and a broad network, particularly comprising patient partners with whom she collaborates on various missions.