4-Antibody AG Closes CHF 6 Million Series A Financing And Appoints Sijmen de Vries As CEO

BASEL, Switzerland, August 21 /PRNewswire/ -- 4-Antibody, a Basel-based biotechnology company focused on exploiting its proprietary platform to develop de novo and improved fully human antibodies, oday announced the closing of a CHF 6 million Series A financing and the appointment of Sijmen de Vries MD, MBA as its new CEO.

The Series A financing was provided by a consortium of existing investors including Biomedinvest AG (CH), Grazia Equity (D), Life Science Partners (NL) and Mulligan Biocapital (D). Proceeds will be used to develop internal pipeline projects initially to pre- clinical proof of concept and establish licensing partnerships with biotech and pharma partners.

Sijmen joins 4- Antibody from Morphochem AG (Munich, Germany), where he was CEO and, after successfully re-focusing the business on antibiotic development and steering its lead hospital antibiotic through pre-clinical development, he merged the company with Biovertis AG. Previous to that, he held various senior management positions at Novartis Pharma AG and SmithKline Beecham. Dr de Vries succeeds Dr Ulf Grawunder, who as co-founder of the company successfully led the company through its initial growth phases and continues to serve the company as its CSO.

"We are very pleased with the closing of this Series A financing and getting the experience that Sijmen brings on board at this exciting time for the company. Over the last year and a half the 4- Antibody technology platform matured to deliver its first exciting results on improving an existing antibody. With this financing closed we are now looking forward to the next stage of development during which we will engage in both internal and collaborative development projects for fully human antibodies" said Prof. Dr. Max Burger, Chairman of 4-Antibody AG and Chairman Novartis Science Board.

Dr. Ulf Grawunder added: "As the (co-)founding CEO, I am very pleased, to now hand over to Sijmen and to be able to fully focus on leading the research and development efforts in my new role as CSO. Both the closing of the financing and the fact that we attracted an experienced industry professional such as Sijmen means that we have now positioned the Company ideally for its next growth phase towards clinical development of our lead compounds."

About 4-Antibody AG

4-Antibody AG is a Basel, Switzerland based privately owned company, with a wholly owned subsidiary in Jena, Germany. 4-Antibody owns a novel and proprietary technology platform for the development and/or optimization of fully human antibodies. For more information about 4-Antibody, visit our website at http://www.4-antibody.com.

www.4-antibody.com

Source: 4-Antibody AG

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