Dr von Rüden was formerly CEO at DIREVO Industrial Biotechnology GmbH, Cologne, Germany. Before this, he was the Chairman of DIREVO’S Advisory Board and worked as President and Chief Executive Officer at DIREVO Biotech AG until the company was acquired by Bayer Schering in September 2008. Prior to joining DIREVO in 2006, he spent six years as the CSO and Executive VP of Business Development with MorphoSys AG in Munich. Before that he was Director of Molecular Biology responsible for drug discovery in oncology at Boehringer Ingelheim in Vienna after holding academic positions at the European Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Heidelberg, and the Institute of Molecular Pathology, Vienna. He holds several advisory board positions in biotechnology companies and public research organizations.
Prof Max Burger, 4-Antibody’s Chairman, said: “We’re delighted to have Thomas join the Board of 4-Antibody and add to the growing momentum at the Company. At DIREVO, a molecular evolution/optimization protein and antibody player, and before that at Morphosys, one of the leading phage display antibody discovery players, Thomas played pivotal roles in creating shareholder value and we’re confident he will make a major contribution to the strategic development of 4-Antibody.”
Dr Robert Burns, 4-Antibody’s recently appointed CEO added: “Antibody discovery and optimization today needs a combination of high throughput in vitro technology coupled with speedy molecular optimization to improve initial discovery ‘hits’ into viable development ‘leads’; this is what 4-Antibody’s platforms do. It’s enormously exciting for us to have one of the industry’s leading exponents of both in vitro antibody discovery and molecular evolution conclude that our technology matches well with the pharmaceutical industry’s antibody discovery and optimization requirements. We expect Thomas’ knowledge of key trends in pharma antibody discovery and development to add incremental momentum to our pursuit of new corporate partnerships as well as our internal drug discovery and development programs.”
About 4-Antibody AG
4-Antibody AG is a privately held Swiss Biotech company active in the area of both therapeutic antibody technology and antibody drug development. The Company has developed a powerful, proprietary antibody discovery and engineering platform utilizing cellular fully human antibody libraries, incorporating the in vitro Retrocyte Display® technology and the in vivo Hu-PAC® technology. The first product to emerge into development from 4-Antibody is a fully human anti-cytomegalovirus therapeutic antibody for use clinically in transplantation applications. 4-Antibody AG owns several patent families related to therapeutic antibody discovery platforms and products, including more than a dozen granted patents worldwide. The Company has 40 employees working at its two locations, in Basel, Switzerland, and in Jena, Germany. For further information about 4-Antibody, please visit our website at www.4-antibody.com
Further Information:
Dr Robert Burns CEO 4-Antibody AG t: +41 61 697 1351 e: robert.burns@4-antibody.com
Dr Douglas Pretsell Associate Partner College Hill t: +44 20 7866 7868 e: douglas.pretsell@collegehill.com
