Vienna, Austria, 11 October 2016 - Hookipa Biotech AG, a company pioneering a new class of immunotherapies and vaccines, today announces the appointment of Torsten Mummenbrauer, Ph.D. as Senior Vice President (SVP) Business Development & Licensing. The appointment is effective October 1, 2016.
Dr. Mummenbrauer brings almost 20 years of business development experience in the life science industry, including more than 10 years in vaccines. Previously, he was Senior Director Business Development at Morphosys AG in Munich, Germany, and held various business development roles with increasing responsibility at GSK Vaccines. His most senior position in GSK was Global Head of the Vaccines Transactions Team based in Brussels, Belgium, with responsibility for global vaccine business development activities ranging from collaborations, option and licensing contracts to mergers & acquisitions. During the 2009 influenza pandemic he led all of GSK’s BD related influenza pandemic preparedness activities. Prior to his 12 years at GSK, Dr. Mummenbrauer was Patent & Licensing Manager at the Technology Transfer office of the Max-Planck-Society, Munich, Germany. Dr. Mummenbrauer holds a PhD in tumor virology from the Heinrich-Pette Institute, Leibniz-Institute for Experimental Virology in Hamburg, Germany.
Commenting on the appointment, Hookipa’s CEO, Mr. Aldag said, “I’m very pleased to welcome a biotech and pharmaceutical executive with Torsten’s strong business development accomplishments in the areas of vaccines and biotech product development. With broad operational expertise with both biotech and big pharma companies, Torsten will add valuable product development, strategic partnering and deal making skills to the Hookipa team at a very exciting time of its development.”
Hookipa’s lead program, HB-101 against Cytomegalovirus, started a Phase 1 trial in Q3 2016 and its Human Papillomavirus immunotherapy candidate is now entering pre-clinical testing.
Dr. Mummenbrauer said, “Hookipa is working on areas with high unmet need and has a powerful technology platform. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to work with Joern and his team to help develop novel approaches to combat infectious diseases and cancer and to helping to develop IP and the partnerships needed to bring these new medicines to patients.”
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Notes to Editors
About Hookipa Biotech
Hookipa Biotech is an immunotherapy company developing next-generation cancer immune therapeutics and vaccines using novel, proprietary arenavirus vector platforms. To date, Hookipa has raised EUR 11.5 million in non-dilutive funds and EUR 27 million equity investment from internationally renowned venture capital investors including Sofinnova Partners, Forbion Capital Partners, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, Takeda Ventures and BioMedPartners. Additional information on Hookipa is available at www.hookipabiotech.com.
About Vaxwave®
Hookipa’s broadly enabling Vaxwave® technology platform is based on replication-defective lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus vectors that allow induction of strong humoral and cellular immune responses to viral, bacterial and tumor antigens. Strong therapeutic efficacy data have been generated in various pre-clinical models. One of the most distinguishing features of this vector platform is its homologous prime-boosting capacity, and Vaxwave® based immunotherapy can be applied repeatedly to boost the immune system and generate potent CD8+ T cell responses against targeted antigens. Vaxwave® is patent-protected by issued patents and patent applications worldwide.
