Symphogen Welcomes Four New Board Members

Apr 19 2011

COPENHAGEN, Denmark – – Symphogen, announced today that four new members have been elected to the company’s Board of Directors: Dr. Sam Broder, Dr. John B. Landis, Mr. Jeppe Christiansen and Tom Bork Petersen, Esq. Symphogen also said that three longstanding directors will be leaving the board: Dr.  Martin Edwards, Dr. Laurence Jay Korn and Dr. Jack Johansen.

“The Board transition comes as a result of our maturing pipeline and the emergence of our clinical portfolio. With several clinical programs already in place, multiple programs advancing to the clinic, and an extremely active partnering agenda, we are very pleased to welcome four very distinguished new board members, adding very significant competence to our board” says Goran Ando MD, Chairman of the Board. “We also sincerely thank the three longstanding board members, Martin Edwards, Jack Johansen and Laurence J. Korn, who are leaving the board and have contributed a lot to bringing Symphogen to where it is today” commented Goran Ando.

Four New Board Members

Sam Broder, M.D. served as the Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Celera from 1998 to 2010. He is a physician-scientist with special expertise in the relationship between disorders of the immune system and cancer. Dr. Broder began his research career in the Metabolism Branch of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 1972. In 1989, President Ronald Reagan appointed Dr. Broder Director of the National Cancer Institute. Under his leadership, the NCI initiated a number of important large-scale human trials in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer.

Dr. Broder is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He is the author of more than 300 scholarly papers, and the inventor behind numerous patents. Dr. Broder is a U.S. citizen and has a bachelor and an M.D. degree from the University of Michigan.

John B. Landis, Dr. joined the Bioanalytical Systems Inc. (BASi) Board of Directors in November 2009 and was elected Chairman of the Board on February 11, 2010. Dr. Landis previously served as Senior Vice President, Pharmaceutical Sciences of Schering-Plough Corporation, from 2003 until his retirement in 2008. Dr. Landis led the global pharmaceutical sciences function of pharmacy, analytical chemistry, process chemistry, biotechnology, quality assurance, clinical supplies and devices.

John B. Landis is a current member of Purdue University’s Chemistry Leadership Council and the Dean’s Leadership Council for the School of Science.  He serves on the Advisory Board of South West Michigan Life Science Venture Capital and NanoMed Scientific and on the board of directors of Metabolic Solutions Development Company. Dr. Landis is a US citizen and an Adjunct Professor of Chemistry at Purdue University. He received a Ph.D. and an M.S. degree in Analytical Chemistry from Purdue University and a B.S. degree in Chemistry from Kent State University.

Jeppe Christiansen, M.Sc. (Economy) has been Chief Executive Officer of LD Invest A/S, of which he is also a co-founder, since 2004. From 1986 to 1988, Jeppe Christiansen worked as an economist at Sparekassen SDS. He came to LD Pensions in 1988 where he became Head of Fund Management and later Executive Vice President responsible for investments. From 1998 to 2004, Jeppe Christiansen worked as a Director in Danske Bank, responsible for international equity investments and corporate clients.

Mr. Christiansen is a member of the board of directors of Novo A/S, Bikubenfonden, DADES A/S, Haldor Topsøe A/S and Kirkbi A/S. Mr. Christiansen is a Danish citizen. He holds a M.Sc. (Economy) from the University of Copenhagen.

Tom Bork Petersen, Esq., has been a partner and Head of the IP/Life Science Group at Norrbom Vinding since 2010. His previous positions include: Junior Associate, Bech, Bruun and Trolle, DK (1990-1993), Associate, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, LLP (1993-1994), Associate General Counsel, International at Biogen Inc., Cambridge (1994 – 2000), MA Associate General Counsel, VP Amersham Biosciences Inc., NJ (2000-2003), Chief Corporate Counsel at Eyetech Pharmaceuticals Inc., NY (2003-2006), General Counsel, VP General at Amphastar Pharmaceuticals. In 2008, Tom Bork Petersen came to Gorrissen Federspiel, DK where he practices in the firm’s IP & Technology Group.

Mr. Petersen has a wide variety of experience in IP litigation with a focus on patents and corporate transactions for life science companies, including alliances, strategic investments and venture capital financing.  He also has in depth competencies in pharmaceutical regulatory law. Mr. Petersen is a Danish citizen and a qualified attorney licensed to practice in Denmark and admitted to practice in New York. He is a law graduate of the University of Aarhus and holds an LL.M from University of Michigan Law School.

Three Directors leaving the board

According to Dr. Drejer, “The departures of Martin Edwards, who has been our Chairman since 2000, Dr. Korn, who joined the Board in 2004, and Dr. Johansen, who has served as a Director since 2004, mark the end of a very successful era. Since our inception more than 10 years ago, Symphogen has built a unique and integrated antibody platform and brought two of its antibody mixture programmes into the clinic, paving the way for the investment of € 100 m which closed in January 2011. I want to cordially thank each of these individuals for their dedication, commitment and insight which helped Symphogen to become what it is today; all of us at Symphogen thank them for their contributions, insight and guidance”.

About Symphogen
         
Symphogen is developing superior antibody therapeutics (monoclonal, monoclonal mixtures and polyclonal) to help people with serious diseases and significant unmet medical needs. With its proprietary, unique Symplex™ discovery, SymSelect™ lead selection and Sympress™ manufacturing platforms, the company captures the diversity and specificity of the natural immune response in rationally designed recombinant antibody compositions. Symphogen is maturing a diversified pipeline of internal and partnered products across multiple indications including cancer, autoimmune and infectious disease. Symphogen is a private biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, with a US subsidiary in Princeton, New Jersey. For more information, please visit www.symphogen.com.

Contacts:
Dr. Kirsten Drejer, Chief Executive Officer,
Symphogen A/S,
Phone: +45 22 10 99 59 or +45 45 26 50 50
E-mail: [email protected]

Dr. Goran Ando, Chairman,
Symphogen A/S,
Phone: +44 20 7245 0244 or +44 77 3953 7624
E-mail: [email protected]

Ms. Heidi K. Roennest,
Executive Office Manager & PA to CEO Kirsten Drejer
Phone: +45 61 18 74 94
E-mail: [email protected]