COPENHAGEN, Denmark--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Symphogen announced today the appointment of Martin Olin to the position of Chief Financial Officer. Symphogen also said it received the second of three tranches of capital specified in its €100 million 2011 financing.
Martin Olin joins Symphogen from Scandinavia Life Science Invest (SLS Invest), where since 2000 he has been Senior Investment Director and a Senior Partner of the evergreen investment company focused on supporting small and medium-sized life science companies. Prior to his position with SLS Invest, Olin was with Novo Nordisk, most recently as the Finance Director EMEA managing finance, IT, and customer service for the region. Olin has more than a decade of executive experience with life science companies and has been involved in numerous private equity transactions, trade sales and commercial partnerships. He currently serves as a director on the board of several life science companies in the US and in Europe. Olin has an Executive MBA from the Scandinavian International Management Institute, and an HA and MSc. from the Copenhagen Business School.
Symphogen also reported that the company had met a key clinical milestone specified by the investors in its €100 million financing announced in January 2011. Novo A/S led the round and was joined by Essex Woodlands together contributing 70% of the investment. Under the agreement, Symphogen was required to meet key clinical milestones demonstrating the company’s ability to accelerate advancement of its lead clinical oncology product Sym004. The first of these milestones has now been successfully met and the second tranche of capital has been received by Symphogen.
Kirsten Drejer, Ph.D., Symphogen’s Chief Executive Officer, commented, “Martin Olin brings to Symphogen more than a decade of international life science experience in finance, strategic operations and the public markets. No stranger to Symphogen, he sat on our Board from 2001 – 2008 and provided key leadership while we grew the company from a vision to a sustainable business entity. We all look forward to his contributions as we enter a new growth phase and advance our clinical candidates toward the market. In particular, the data that has been presented on our lead candidate, Sym004, has increased awareness of our breakthrough antibody mixture approach. Having met the criteria set by our investors to secure the second tranche of funding, we believe we are strongly positioned to grow organically and in collaboration with our partners.”
Dr. Drejer said that Thomas Feldthus, a co-founder of the company and formerly, CFO, had left the company to pursue other interests.
“Thomas was with us from the beginning, and his presence will be missed,” added Dr. Drejer. “Thomas’ vision and his leadership was felt throughout the company, and we wish him the best as he moves forward to new challenges and opportunities.”
About Symphogen
Symphogen is developing superior antibody therapeutics (monoclonal, monoclonal mixtures and polyclonal) to help people with serious diseases and significant unmet medical needs. With its proprietary, unique Symplex™ discovery, SymSelect™ lead selection and Sympress™ manufacturing platforms, the company captures the diversity and specificity of the natural immune response in rationally designed recombinant antibody compositions. Symphogen is maturing a diversified pipeline of internal and partnered products across multiple indications including cancer, autoimmune and infectious disease. Symphogen is a private biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, with a US subsidiary in Princeton, New Jersey. For more information, please visit www.symphogen.com.
Contact:
Symphogen A/S
Dr. Kirsten Drejer, +45 22 10 99 59
+45 45 26 50 50
Chief Executive Officer
kd@symphogen.com
or
Ms. Heidi K. Roennest, +45 61 18 74 94
Executive Office Manager & PA to CEO Kirsten Drejer
hkr@symphogen.com
