ViVac Pharma appoints Keren Leshem as CEO

Esme Needham | November 26, 2025 | Appointment | |  CEO, Oncology, ViVac Pharma 

Early-stage biotechnology company ViVac Pharma has appointed Keren Leshem as its new CEO.

Leshem brings almost 30 years of experience leading medical technology and life science companies, previously serving as director of Aspivix, Rambam MedTech and Ark Surgical.

Chezy Barenholz, head of ViVac’s Membrane & Liposome Lab, said: “Keren’s leadership, coupled with this exceptional team of pioneers, positions ViVac at the forefront of RNA and nanomedicine innovation. We’re building on decades of research to develop novel therapies that can truly outsmart cancer.”

Advertisement

ViVac specialises in creating programmable ribonucleic acid (RNA)-based cancer immunotherapies. Its pre-clinical oncology pipeline includes potential treatments for liver, ovarian and other types of solid tumours. ViVac’s RNA-LNP platform reprogrammes RNA to behave like a virus, activating localised immune responses without viral replication. It is designed to be scaled across a wide range of cancers, with the potential to expand away from its initial indications.

The global cancer immunotherapy market is expected to exceed $125bn by 2032, with RNA-based approaches being a significant driver of growth in this field.

Leshem said: “ViVac’s science represents a paradigm shift in oncology – using synthetic RNA to mimic the potency of viral immunity, but with the control and safety of modern nanomedicine.”

The Pharmafile Brief

This article featured in: December 2025 – The Pharmafile Brief

Related Content

5997920696_ecb224068e_b

CEO of PixarBio Corporation sentenced to prison for defrauding investors

Frank Reynolds, the CEO of Boston based PixarBio Corporation, was sentenced to seven years in …

thomas-neff

FibroGen rocked by unexpected death of CEO Thomas B Neff

In a saddening turn of events, San Francisco-based FibroGen has announced that Thomas B Neff, …

allergan

Allergan shareholders reject proposal to split roles of chairman and CEO

Allergan shareholders have rejected a proposal to immediately separate the roles of CEO and chairman, …

The Gateway to Local Adoption Series

Latest content