Caroline is the co-founder and Executive Director of the EspeRare Foundation, a nonprofit biotech established in 2013. Over the past decade, she has spearheaded a patient-centred approach to accelerate drug development and reposition treatments for rare diseases, applying a venture philanthropic model that reinvests profits into R&D to enhance equity and broaden impact for patients. Most notably, since 2018, Caroline has led the rescue of a protein replacement therapy that has achieved Breakthrough Therapy Designation and is now in pivotal testing, poised to become the first treatment approved in the US and EU to correct a genetic disease before birth. Committed to paving the way for future prenatal therapies, she is championing a Prenatal R&D platform aimed at accelerating the development of treatments administered before birth. Before founding EspeRare, Caroline began her career at a machine learning startup in Silicon Valley and later led an R&D department within Merck KGaA. Trained as a neurobiologist, she holds degrees in product development and corporate management. She advises NGOs and corporations on sustainable health innovation and is an independent rapporteur for the EU’s Innovative Health Initiative. Caroline is a global ASHOKA fellow who was honoured as Swiss Female Entrepreneur of the Year after founding EspeRare. She also holds the position of Vice-Chair of the Board at HUG, Switzerland’s largest university hospital.
Caroline’s commitment to creating new models and innovating for vulnerable patients is deeply inspired by her hero—her daughter—who is courageously striving with a disabling rare condition.
