PARIS, January 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ExonHit Therapeutics, a drug and diagnostic discovery company, today announced that it has created two commercial business units: the Molecular Diagnostics and Genomic Services Unit and the Therapeutics Unit.
The accomplishments of the last years and recent progress in core programs have laid the foundation to implement a new structure more targeted to the market. John Jaskowiak has been appointed as Head of the Molecular Diagnostics and Genomic Services Unit and Matt Pando has been appointed as Head of the Therapeutics Unit. In addition, the company has recruited two new collaborators: Anders Ingvarsson as Vice-President of Marketing of Molecular Diagnostics and James Douglas as Vice-President of Corporate Strategy and Projects. This organization will receive support from the Financial Department headed by Philippe Rousseau and the Legal Department headed by Frederique Schlumberger.
Anders Ingvarsson is Swedish and has a dual academic background in Chemical Engineering and Marketing. He has been instrumental in launching start-up companies and developing diagnostics distribution channels in Europe. He worked from 2001 to 2007 for Sangtec Molecular Diagnostics as Executive Vice President, achieving key collaborations and partnerships with major diagnostics companies, before creating his own consulting firm in Stockholm in 2007. He will be responsible for the design and implementation of marketing plans for ExonHit Therapeutics diagnostic products.
James Douglas was previously Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing of the German diagnostic company, Epigenomics. Previous to Epigenomics, Mr. Douglas was Vice President, Sales and Marketing for Biosite where he was responsible for the launch of the cardiovascular diagnostic, BNP. He also served as Vice President, Marketing for Gen-Probe, was Director of Marketing at Centocor and held sales and marketing positions with Sanofi Diagnostics Pasteur and Abbott Laboratories. Mr. Douglas has experience in cardiovascular, oncology and infectious disease diagnostics. He joins the company as Vice President, Corporate Development and will be responsible for defining major strategic development opportunities for ExonHit Therapeutics. Mr. Douglas will also oversee the project organization and will report to ExonHit Therapeutics’ President of the Management Board.
Bruno Tocque, ExonHit’s President of the Management Board said, “The technical and management skills of our new collaborators, as well as their combined experience in the development of new diagnostics and in the service business will be of significant importance while we progress towards launching our first Alzheimer’s disease diagnostic from blood.”
On its own resources, ExonHit Therapeutics aims in 2008 at launching new whole-genome micro-arrays for rats and mice; at organizing its infrastructure in order to commercialize its first blood-based diagnostic for Alzheimer’s disease; and at partnering its EHT0202 compound for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders on the basis on the results of a first Phase II study for which the regulatory dossiers have been filed at the end of this year. At the same time, ExonHit expects that its longstanding collaboration with Allergan for the discovery, development and commercialization of drugs for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, pain and ophthalmology will result in further progress over the next two years.
The Management Board and the Supervisory Board have decided to set up this new organization to best realize the value of the Company’s intellectual property portfolio. The founders expect to then transfer leadership to a new Management Board that will be elected before March 31, 2008 to pursue a new entrepreneurial venture. " We have been working closely with the founders in order to achieve this new organization” states Laurent Condomine, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, he added " the founders will continue to serve the Company in an advisory capacity”. A consultancy agreement provides, in full agreement with Allergan, for a continued involvement and support of ExonHit’s collaboration with Allergan.
About ExonHit Therapeutics
http://www.exonhit.com
ExonHit Therapeutics is the world’s leader in the analysis of alternative RNA splicing, a process which when deregulated plays a key role in the onset of various diseases.
ExonHit has a multi-component commercial strategy to capture the maximum value from its leadership in alternative splicing. The Company is already generating revenues from a new generation of microarrays, SpliceArrayTM family of products that enable life science researchers to detect crucial disease-associated information. These products are marketed worldwide in conjunction with Agilent and Affymetrix. In the field of diagnostics, ExonHit has a major collaboration with bioMerieux to develop completely novel predictive blood-based cancer diagnostics, which could play a key role in improving the treatment of breast cancer and other major cancers and develops its own projects for the detection of other chronic diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease or atherosclerosis.
In parallel, ExonHit is developing its own therapeutic pipeline in the field of neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. The Company has advanced drug candidates into clinical trials and is evaluating several promising pre-clinical compounds. ExonHit also has a strategic partnership with Allergan, to discover and develop new therapeutics in the areas of pain, neurological diseases and ophthalmology. This collaboration provides on-going research funding to ExonHit.
Founded in 1997, ExonHit is headquartered in Paris, France and has a U.S. facility in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The Company is listed on Alternext of Euronext Paris since November 17, 2005.
This press release includes only summary information and does not purport to be comprehensive. The projections, forecast and estimates of ExonHit Therapeutics which may be contained herein are for illustrative purposes only and are based on management’s current views and assumptions. Such projections, forecast and estimates involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, as described at Section 4.2 “Facteurs de risque” (Risk Factors) of the Document de Base available on ExonHit Therapeutics’ website (http://www.exonhit.com), that may cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those anticipated in the summary information.
In addition, ExonHit Therapeutics, its shareholders, and its affiliates, directors, officers, advisors and employees have not verified the accuracy of, and make no representations or warranties in relation to, statistical data or predictions contained in this press release that were taken or derived from third party sources or industry publications, and such statistical data and predictions are used in this press release for information purposes only.
philippe.rousseau@exonhit.com
CONTACT: Contacts: ExonHit Therapeutics: Bruno Tocque, C.E.O., Philippe
Rousseau, C.F.O., Tel: +33-1-58-05-47-00, philippe.rousseau@exonhit.com
