Visiopharm strengthens the executive management team with regulatory expert Esther Abels

Visiopharm is very pleased to announce that Esther Abels, M.Sc., has joined the company as Chief Clinical and Regulatory Officer.

Visiopharm is on a journey to deliver next-generation AI-driven Precision Pathology tools for cancer diagnostics on a global scale. Esther brings extensive experience in Digital Pathology, Regulatory and Clinical Affairs, as well as Pharma Services for the development of new Companion Diagnostics. With upcoming novel diagnostic and quality platforms and services, Esther is the ideal candidate to contribute to Visiopharm´s transformative journey of precision pathology in diagnostics.

Dirk Vossen, Chief Diagnostic Officer at Visiopharm, states: “We have an ambitious roadmap for standardized AI-driven precision pathology and an equally ambitious regulatory roadmap with a strong focus on the United States. I have had the privilege of working with Esther for several years at Philips, where we had to trailblaze an entirely new regulatory path for digital and computational pathology in close collaboration with the FDA. I am excited to be working with Esther again, now that the next generation of AI-driven tools for Precision Pathology requires a similar type of effort.”

“From where I stand, Visiopharm is unique in two important ways: First, the company has grown organically for almost 20 years, and demonstrated a working deployment model in a market with a very complex pathway from biopsy to quantitative insights. Very few others have done that, and neither the efforts nor the risks should be underestimated.

Esther Abels

“From where I stand, Visiopharm is unique in two important ways: First, the company has grown organically for almost 20 years, and demonstrated a working deployment model in a market with a very complex pathway from biopsy to quantitative insights. Very few others have done that, and neither the efforts nor the risks should be underestimated. Second, Visiopharm has demonstrated both the commitment but also disruptive technological innovation, enabling a paradigm for standardization, including the mitigation of upstream error sources, for example, stain quality issues, calibration, and downstream in conjunction with the interpretation of tissue diagnostic assays. This addresses the clinical utility while enabling interoperability and is critical to pursue the ambition of Pathology becoming part of Precision Medicine. I am excited about contributing to this journey in this role,” stated Esther Abels.

“Esther is indeed one of the most respected people in our industry. In collaboration with the FDA, she has contributed to establishing a regulatory pathway for digital pathology. This is a challenging field from a standardization, harmonization, and regulatory perspective, that must be addressed in a strong interdisciplinary forum. Esther is also among the co-founders of The Alliance, which is an initiative that brings together industry and regulators in a forum for constructive dialog. And she is serving on the board of the Digital Pathology Association. That makes Esther an ideal candidate for taking Visiopharm through an important strategic transition, but also one of the people with the potential to transform the entire field”, stated Michael Grunkin, CEO of Visiopharm.