Professional Career
From 1977 to 1980, in the early years of the rapidly developing field genetic engineering, Lecocq was project manager in the Department of Genetics of the pharmaceutical company SmithKline RIT, in Rixensart, Belgium, where he set up a molecular biology laboratory and directed the research on vaccines against enteropathogenic E. coli strains, and hepatitis B virus.
In 1980 he was appointed Scientific Director of Transgène, one of the first biotechnology companies in France, that was founded in Strasbourg in 1979 at the initiative of Prof. Pierre Chambon and Dr. Philippe Kourilsky, the goal being to develop new technologies in biomedical research for industrial applications. In 1984, Lecocq became Vice President and in 1990 President of Transgène.
After Transgène was acquired in 1991 by the Mérieux group, Lecocq also became Corporate Director of Research and Development of the Pasteur-Merieux-Connaught Group, based in Lyon.
Jean-Pierre Lecocq died at age 44 in the crash of Air Inter Flight 148 on 20 January 1992 at Mont Sainte-Odile, Alsace. He is survived by his wife Mireille and two children.
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