Candriam Investors has expanded its Brussels-based biotech equity strategy team, with the appointment of Servaas Michielssens as senior biotechnology analyst.
He will be charged with assessing the latest drug development trends for the €440 million Candriam Equities L Biotechnology fund. Since launch, the fund has produced an average annual return of 24.6%, although is down 17.9% year-to-date.
Michielssens joins from the Max Planck Institute in Germany, where he has spent two years developing computational protocols serving research of biomolecules with improved properties. He holds a Masters in computational chemistry and a PhD in science from the University of Leuven in Belgium.
A spokesperson said the firm was attracted to Michielssens’ extensive knowledge of small molecule drug development, and believe it will complement the team’s current protein drug specialism.
Candriam manages assets of €94.1 billion and last month reported inflows of €1 billion a month for 2015.
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