Bioversys announces appointment of anti-infective expert Dr. Daniel Ritz as Chief Scientific Officer and retirement of Dr. Sergio Lociuro

 

Basel, Switzerland. November 3, 2025, 7am CET

 

BioVersys AG (SIX: BIOV), a multi-asset, clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focusing on research and development of novel antibacterial products for serious life-threatening infections caused by multi-drug resistant ("MDR") bacteria, announced today the appointment of Dr. Daniel Ritz as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO).

 

Dr. Marc Gitzinger, Chief Executive Officer and founder of BioVersys:

“I would like to personally thank Dr Sergio Lociuro for his 10 years as BioVersys CSO and for his invaluable contributions to the two clinical stage assets that could change the way we fight infections on the WHO “Critical” Priority list. We will miss Sergio very much and wish him the best for his well-deserved retirement.”

 

“I am very pleased that, in Dr. Daniel Ritz, we found a strong leader in the anti-infective space, to succeed Sergio. We are excited to work with Daniel on our early-stage pipeline, notably the new partnership with Shionogi on our BV500 program. Daniel is an exceptional scientific leader with a proven track record of developing antibiotic compounds and wide-ranging experience researching infection biology.”

 

Dr. Daniel Ritz, incoming Chief Scientific Officer: “I’m honored to join BioVersys and excited to support this excellent team to achieve our collective goal of making efficacious drugs that make a difference to patients affected by MDR infections.”

 

Dr. Ritz has recently served as lead of the Biology Technologies and Discovery group at Idorsia Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for initiating new discovery programs, lead candidate identification, as well as leading microbiology and functional assay development for vaccine programs. Before that, Dr. Ritz had built and led the cell metabolism and anti-infectives group, where he led discovery and development efforts for small molecule cell metabolism modulating inhibitors for infectious disease, immunology, and oncology applications.

 

Previously, Dr. Ritz was a senior leader and lab head of the anti-infectives biology group at Actelion Pharmaceuticals, where he advanced multiple projects from inception through lead candidate optimization, preclinical development, and pre-NDA. He also headed Actelion’s genetics lab, where he led oral programs for Gram-positive and respiratory tract infections.

 

Earlier in his career, Dr. Ritz was a senior research scientist at Cubist Pharmaceuticals, where he led the whole-cell screening and development group, discovering novel antibacterial compounds, and developing proprietary genetic tools to modify antibiotics for activity against MDR bacteria.

 

 

About BioVersys

BioVersys AG is a multi-asset, clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on identifying, developing and commercializing novel antibacterial products for serious life-threatening infections caused by multi-drug resistant (“MDR”) bacteria. Derived from the company’s two internal technology platforms (TRIC and Ansamycin Chemistry), candidates are designed and developed to overcome resistance mechanisms, block virulence production and directly affect the pathogenesis of harmful bacteria towards the identification of new treatment options in the antimicrobial and microbiome fields. This enables BioVersys to address the high unmet medical need for new treatments against life-threatening resistant bacterial infections and bacteria-exacerbated chronic inflammatory microbiome disorders. The company’s most advanced research and development programs address nosocomial infections of Acinetobacter baumannii (BV100, Phase 3), and tuberculosis (alpibectir, Phase 2, in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and a consortium of the University of Lille, France). BioVersys is located in the biotech hub of Basel, Switzerland.

BioVersys contact

Hernan Levett, CFO

Tel. +41 61 633 22 50

Mail: Hernan.levett@bioversys.com

For Media: media@bioversys.com

www.bioversys.com

 

 

Disclaimer

This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements, such as "believe", "assume", "expect", "forecast", "project", "may", "could", "might", "will" or similar expressions concerning BioVersys and its business, including with respect to the progress, timing and completion of research, development and clinical studies for product candidates. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of BioVersys to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. BioVersys is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

 

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