Meet your Match: Entrepreneurship

Tim Kievits | CEO, Precision Medicine Lab

In 1985, Tim Kievits started his career as a biochemical technician at the Department of HumanGenetics at the University of Leiden. While working at the university, he also completed his Masters'sdegree in Chemistry at the University of Utrecht. In 1990 he joined Organon Teknika’s nucleic aciddiagnostics R&D group that specialised in HIV, CMV and HCV detection and held various research andmanagerial positions at this company. He left his last position as Director of Technology of theNucleic Acid Diagnostics Business Area to spin out and develop an innovative microarray technology.

In 2000, he founded PamGene, a science and technology-driven company in the multi-biomarkertesting area specialising in protein activity measurements in model systems and clinical samples. AsCEO of PamGene, he organised several finance rounds for Pamgene, securing investments frominternational venture capital funds and corporate, local and private funds. He built an experiencedmanagement team and developed the novel technology into a robust CE-marked system(PamStation® and PamChips®).

From January 2013 to 2019, he served as director of Healthcare Innovation at Vitromics HealthcareHolding, the parent company of PamGene. In this position, he established Vitromics as a CompanionDiagnostics company, leading the strategic development of PamGene towards complementarydiagnostic tests in the clinic. In this period, he developed a keen understanding of the Dutchhealthcare system, including the regulatory, health technology assessment and payer aspects.

From January 2020 on, he co-build the not-for-profit Precision Medicine Institute Foundation (TOMi)and took up the responsibility of Chairmen of the Board in August 2020. This institute aims atcombining the regional public and private forces towards patient-driven and fastest implementationof personalised medicine tools in standard care. Several innovative clinical trials have been initiatedand are running.

In March 2019, he founded the Precision Medicine Laboratory (PML), where he serves as GeneralManager. PML has developed new technologies to discover compounds focusing on use in apersonalised medical setting. PML approach shortens the time from finding a compound to its use inthe clinic.

Tim Kievits contributed to an extensive number of patents and articles. He co-organised several(inter)national conferences and symposia and presented and chaired sessions on personalisedmedicine. As Chair of the Personalised Medicines Topic Group of the EuropaBio Association for fouryears, he developed a good understanding of the European Government organisation in Brussels. Heparticipated in and presented at several EU advisory meetings.