Novigenix Strengthens Board with Appointment of Francois Martelet, M.D. as Non-Executive Director

LAUSANNE, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Novigenix SA, a leading Immuno-Transcriptomics company that develops and commercializes products for early cancer detection and precision medicine, today announced the appointment of Francois Martelet, M.D., to its Board of Directors as a non-executive director. Dr. Martelet has over 25 years’ experience at both corporate and operational level in pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

“Francois is a proven leader, who has guided multiple international pharma and biotech companies in his career. In particular, his recent experience with diagnostic companies and shared vision will prove invaluable to Novigenix as we build our Immuno-Transcriptomics based diagnostics portfolio. We sincerely welcome him to the company,” said Dr. Jan Groen, CEO of Novigenix.

“Novigenix’s unique Blood Immuno-Trancriptomics sequencing platform (BITseq™) provides a new avenue to the development of diagnostics to detect cancer at the early stages as well as intriguing applications in precision medicine. I look forward to working with the whole team at this pivotal time,” said Dr. Martelet.

Dr. Martelet recently retired as CEO of NetScientific, a publicly listed healthcare investment group in the UK focused on diagnostics, digital health and therapeutics. As part of his CEO role, Francois was Chairman of several companies, including Vortex BioSciences, Wanda, Glycotest and ProAxsis. Dr. Martelet held several executive positions, such as CEO at Topotarget, a publicly traded oncology therapeutics company, which was successfully merged with BioAlliance. He also held senior level commercial roles in oncology at Novartis Pharma AG and Merck & Co, Inc.

Dr. Martelet earned a Doctorate in Medicine and a Master's in Business from Dijon University (France). He also holds a Degree in Legal Medicine from R. Descartes University School of Medicine (Paris, France). In addition, he is a graduate of the Advanced General Management Program at INSEAD (France) and attended several Senior Executive Programs at Harvard Business School (Boston, USA).

"I am delighted to welcome Dr. Martelet as a new director to our Board,” said Dr. Brian Hashemi, Executive Chairman of the Board. “Martelet’s extensive medical oncology and operational experience within pharmaceutical and biotech companies throughout the world will definitely bring tremendous advantage to Novigenix as we expand applications of our BITseq™ platform.”

About BITseq™

Novigenix’s Blood Immuno-Transcriptomics sequencing platform (BITseq™) provides actionable insights by analyzing the gene expression modifications (mRNA signatures) induced by the host immune response to various triggers, such as the onset of cancer. Disease-specific predictive algorithms leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyze mRNA signatures associated with clinical and medical parameters for early cancer detection and precision medicine.

About Novigenix

Novigenix is committed to providing new solutions based on deeper understanding of the human host response against cancer. The company was founded on the vision of leveraging Immuno-Transcriptomics to bring unprecedented advances in diagnosing and treating cancer patients leading to significant improvement in healthcare. Novigenix’s unique Immuno-Transcriptomics technology enables an accelerated identification of disease specific mRNA signatures of circulating immune cells, which combined with machine learning and predictive algorithms, can predict onset and progression of disease. The Company has established a valuable proprietary multicultural biobank and database of over 1,400 patients at risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) and has launched its first blood-based molecular diagnostic product, Colox^®, for the early detection of colorectal cancer. For more information visit www.novigenix.com.

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