OSLO, Norway, September 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Affitech AS, the Norwegian antibody therapeutics company, today announced that it has appointed Dr Keith McCullagh as non-executive Chairman of its Board of Directors. The Company’s previous chairman, Oyvin Broymer, will remain as a member of the Board. Mr Broymer welcomed Dr McCullagh’s appointment and said:
“I am delighted that Keith McCullagh has agreed to take over from me as Affitech’s new chairman. He has an outstanding entrepreneurial track record in the biopharmaceutical industry, most recently at Santaris Pharma in Denmark, where as CE0 he has played a major role in establishing the company as a leader in the RNA medicines field. Affitech’s antibody technology is in a different area of the biopharmaceuticals market, but I am confident that Affitech will benefit from his leadership and guidance. I wish him every success.”
Accepting the appointment, Keith McCullagh commented:
“Affitech has significant potential in the field of human monoclonal antibody therapeutics. Both its cell-based and target antigen screening technology is at the forefront of the industry and I look forward to assisting the Company’s management, board and shareholders to build the resources and competencies required to develop innovative potential new products. I look forward to Affitech achieving several competitive commercial goals in the coming years.”
Affitech intends to focus its future development on building a pipeline of proprietary therapeutic antibody product candidates, through both in-house research and development and alliances with other companies.
Affitech CEO, Dr Martin Welschof, commented:
“I thank Oyvin Broymer, who took over the chairmanship of Affitech in 2002 at a time of major strategic change and has skillfully guided us to our current position. I look forward to working closely with Keith McCullagh, whose experience in building successful biotech companies will be of great value as we enter the next phase of Affitech’s growth and development.”
Affitech also announced that Thomas von Rueden has retired as a director, having completed his term of office.
Notes to Editors:
About Affitech
Affitech AS is a privately held human therapeutic antibody discovery and development company with headquarters and R&D facilities in Oslo, Norway and its US subsidiary in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Company’s current disease focus is oncology and it utilizes two discrete but unique approaches for the discovery of fully human antibodies - (i) Molecule Based Antibody Discovery, and (ii) Cell Based Antibody Discovery. Molecule Based Antibody Discovery involves proprietary PhagemidScreeN and AffiScreeN(TM) technologies and uses validated targets for discovery purpose. Cell Based Antibody Discovery is based on CBAS(TM) technology, which is a “reverse-screening” approach for discovering antibodies and their cognate targets utilizing disease-specific cells. Several of the Company’s proprietary product candidates currently in development were generated by CBAS(TM). Affitech also sells its proprietary Protein L product line for the purification of antibody and antibody fragments. Affitech offers collaborators a flexible business model and competitive price structure with low royalty stacking. The Company has concluded deals with commercial organizations such as Roche, Peregrine, Omeros, XOMA, NatImmune, Viventia, Dyax, Micromet, Pharmexa and others. Further information at http://www.affitech.com.
About Keith McCullagh
Keith McCullagh, PhD, BVSc, MRCVS, is an experienced bioscience entrepreneur, having founded and built three previous companies in the life science industry. Most recently, from October 2003 to June 2008, he was CEO of Santaris Pharma, a Danish biopharmaceutical company. From 2000 to 2003 he was executive chairman of OnMedica Group plc, a European pharmaceutical e-detailing business and since 2000 has been non-executive chairman of Pharmacy 2U Ltd, the UK’s leading mail order warehouse pharmacy. From 1986 to 1998 he was chief executive of British Biotech plc, a company he built into one of Europe’s leading biopharmaceutical businesses. Prior to founding British Biotech, Keith was UK Research Director for G.D.Searle & Co, Inc, an international pharmaceutical business now part of Pfizer.
Keith also helped foster the development of the bioscience industry in Europe through the establishment of the UK BioIndustry Association, where he was inaugural chairman, and the formation of EuropaBio, where he served as a member of the first Board. Keith qualified in veterinary medicine from the University of Bristol and has a PhD in pathology from the University of Cambridge.
CONTACT: Contacts for Affitech: Affitech (Norway): Dr. Martin Welschof,
Chief Executive Officer, +47-22-95-87-58, m.welschof@affitech.com; Affitech
(USA): Dr. Rathin C. Das President, +1-925-935-9803, r.das@affitech.com;
Media Enquiries: Richard Hayhurst, Hayhurst Media, +44-7711-821527,
richardh@hayhurstmedia.com
