Providing Tailored Solutions to Turn Ideas into Tomorrow’s medicines

Raquel Fortunato is the CEO of GenIbet Biopharmaceuticals since 2015. She is a Chemical Engineer from Instituto Superior Técnico (Lisbon – Portugal) with a specialization in Biotechnology, a PhD in Biochemical Engineering from the NOVA University of Lisbon and Post-graduate education in General Management (NOVA University of Lisbon). She has more than 15 years of experience in project management of Research and Development Projects, Strategic Management and Client Interface. Prior to joining GenIbet in 2006 as a Project Manager, she was the responsible for the launch of the Quality Control laboratory of a water treatment company. Raquel was GenIbet operations director from 2011 to 2015 and has additional expertise in Technology Transfer Processes, Budget implementation, Technical Support to Process Operations, Quality Assurance and Team Coordination.

João Pedro Almeida Lopes is one of the founders of GenIbet and president of its board of Directors since 2008 as well as the Director-General and President of the Medinfar Group (one of GenIbet shareholders) since 1990.  He is the President of the Board of APIFARMA –Portuguese Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry since 2007 and Vice-President of the Board of the Health Cluster 

Portugal since 2017. He is also Vice-President of CIP (Confederation of Portuguese Business) Executive committee and Management Board since 2014. He has a degree in Finance from the Instituto Superior de Economia, in Lisbon.

Manuel Carrondo, member of the board of directors of GenIbet is Full Professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at the Faculty of Sciences and Technology at NOVA University of Lisbon. He has extensive management experience in the biotechnology sector and heads iBET’s Business Development. His key areas of interest include (i) Animal Cell Technology and its application for human and animal health, (ii) therapeutic and diagnostic recombinant proteins, including fusion proteins, (iii) virus-like particles and pseudo viruses as vaccination agents and viruses (retro-, adeno-, lenti-) as deliverables for gene therapy, (iv) cell therapies and stem cells and (v) cGMP pilot plant scale-up and production development of biopharmaceuticals. Professor Manuel Carrondo is Advisory Board Member of CEVEC Pharmaceuticals, PBS Biotech, CNIC (Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research Carlos III), Masthercells (Manufacturing Synergies for Therapeutic Cells), Alloksys Life Sciences BV, IBMT (Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering), and GenIbet Biopharmaceuticals. He is also the Portuguese representative to the Working Party on Biotechnology, Nanotechnology and Converging Technologies of OECD (The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). Manuel Carrondo has published over 250 papers, 22 book chapters and supervised 35 PhD students.

Founder of Lusomedicamenta (Recipharm)
Head of Recipharm Portugal
Senior manager in multinational pharmaceutical companies (Janssen Pharmaceuticals)
PharmD, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lisbon

Manuel Alfredo da Cunha José de Mello was born in Lisbon, October 3, 1948. He is married and has 3 sons.

He has a degree in Economics from ISEG- Lisbon School of Economics & Management.

Since its foundation, he has been Chairman of NUTRINVESTE, SGPS, S.A. (holding of SOVENA GROUP, one of the largest agribusiness company in the world, producing cooking oils, olive oils and olives)  and member of the Board of Directors of Genibet.

Paula M. Alves, Senior Scientific Advisor of GeniBET, is the CEO of iBET and Professor at NOVA University of Lisbon (ITQB and FCT). She received her Ph.D. at Biochemical Engineering from the NOVA University of Lisbon, in 2001, and her B.S in Biochemistry from the Sciences Faculty of the University of Lisbon, in 1991. Working in Animal Cell Technology since 1990, Professor Alves’ research integrates cell metabolism understanding with biochemical engineering for the improvement of bioprocesses efficiency also focusing on the development of new tools and technologies for pre-clinical research. Her key areas of interest include (i) production of biopharmaceuticals such as viral vectors, vaccines and recombinant proteins (ii) development of 3D culture systems for expansion and differentiation of stem cells in bioreactors for cell therapy, regenerative medicine and in vitro toxicology applications (iii) expand systems biology approaches to improve the processes involved in the research described in (i) and (ii). Professor Paula Alves is currently the Chairperson of the ESACT (European Society for Animal Cell Technology) and elected member of the US National Academy of Engineering (2021). She serves several scientific advisory boards namely the IMI (Innovative Medicines Initiative) and of EURL-ECVAM She was a member of the Advisory Board of Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge 1 – European Commission, between 2013 and 2018. She has published over 260 papers, 32 book chapters and supervised 35 PhD students, 18 post-docs and several master theses. In 2009 she received the Scientific Merit Award from NOVA University of Lisbon.