Nantes, 29 August 2006 – TcLand SA, a pioneering biotechnology company in the field of personalized medicine in transplantation and auto-immune diseases, today announced the strengthening of its management team and Board of Directors. Alain Huriez MD, one of the company’s co-founders, was named as the TcLand’s new Chairman and CEO. Furthermore, two new board members have been appointed: Elisabeth Hubert MD, a former French Health Minister and ex-CEO of Fournier Laboratories France, and Marc de Garidel, President, Amgen South Western Europe and Vice-President of EBE (European Biopharmaceuticals Enterprises).
“I am proud to pass the baton to Alain Huriez” declared Marina Guillet PhD, TcLand’s former CEO who now becomes Executive Director of the Diagnostics Business Unit. She added: “Alain Huriez is internationally acknowledged for his broad experience of the biotech and CRO industries. TcLand will benefit from his in-depth expertise in drug development and regulatory matters, as well as his network of industry contacts. Alain’s strong and increasing commitment to TcLand confirms and reinforces the company’s international outlook”.
“I would like to thank TcLand and its shareholders for the trust they have placed in me, and I am delighted to have the opportunity to work with such an experienced and committed group of people. I would like to thank the management team - Marina Guillet and Maryvonne Hiance - for their tremendous achievements”, said Alain Huriez. “I am very impressed by TcLand’s breakthrough technology and its strong pipeline of promising biomarkers and new molecules - these assets position the company firmly in the red-hot, fast-expanding field of personalized medicine. Furthermore, I am delighted to welcome Elisabeth Hubert and Marc de Garidel, two highly skilled professionals, as new board members; TcLand will benefit from their in-depth knowledge of the healthcare and biotech sectors”, added Alain Huriez.
Alain Huriez has made his mark in the healthcare industry through a series of high-ranking positions including Vice President of Quintiles Europe (in charge of the firm’s Biotechnology Consulting Group) and worldwide program director for the development of a recombinant protein. More recently, he joined the venture capital community (via a position in Truffle Venture in 2002-2003) before joining Neovacs SA, a leader in immunology, as CEO from 2003 to 2006. Alain Huriez spent 16 years developing chemical and biotechnology products from the preclinical stage through registration and delivers strong expertise in corporate business development and entrepreneurship. Alain Huriez is also Vice President of the LEEM’s Biotech Committee and expert for Biotech institutions.
Elisabeth Hubert MD, a former French Health Minister and CEO of Fournier France Laboratories from 1997 to 2004, currently serves as Chairperson at the French National Home Care Association (FNEHAD) and also manages ALIAGIS, a consulting company. Elisabeth Hubert is a board member at INSERM (the French national institute for healthcare and medical research) and LFB (one of France’s leading biopharmaceutical companies), and also served as a LEEM board member until 2004.
Marc de Garidel was named Vice President Southwestern Europe of Amgen International in January 2006. After being hired in 1995 to build the group’s financial strategy for Europe, he served as VP Finance and Corporate Controller from 1998 to June 2000 and then as Chairman and CEO of Amgen France until December 2005. In the ten years before joining Amgen, Marc de Garidel occupied a number of management positions at Eli Lilly in France, the US and Germany. Until very recently, he served as President of the LEEM’s Biotech Committee. Marc de Garidel is Vice President of EBE (European Biopharmaceuticals Enterprises).
TcLand’s Board of Directors also includes Maryvonne Hiance, another company co-founder and COO since 2003, and Marina Guillet.
Maryvonne Hiance holds a degree from the elite “Ecole Polytechnique Feminine” engineering school in Paris, together with a degree in Nuclear Engineering from the Science & Technology Institute in Grenoble, France. She has held various positions in the biotechnology sector, including European General Manager of DrugAbuse Sciences, Chairman of the European subsidiary of SangStat Medical Corporation and General Manager of Strategic Ventures.
Marina Guillet co-founded TcLand and specializes in the analysis of T cell receptor regulation. She is an inventor on the company’s patents relating to the TcLandscape® technology platform. She was honored by the French Ministry Research in 2002, receiving a special award for the most promising PhD-entrepreneur.
About TCLAND: Founded in 2002 in Nantes, France, TcLand is a biopharmaceutical company which is pioneering personalized medicine in the fields of transplantation and auto-immune disease. Building on initial specialization in the analysis and monitoring of T cell immune responses, the company has developed specific diagnostic biomarkers and a portfolio of therapeutic molecules for grafted patients and patients with immune disorders (such as multiple sclerosis). The company runs immunological tests (using TcLandscape® technology) for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies conducting clinical trials in the fields of oncology, auto-immune disease, vaccination and transplantation.
TcLand also conducts its own R&D via the development of new biomarkers (micro-arrays) and drug candidates, in close collaboration with INSERM research unit 643 (headed by Prof. Jean-Paul Soulillou) and with support from the INSERM’s technology transfer department. TcLand is a Board Member of the Atlantic Biotherapy Competitiveness Biocluster.
In 2006, TcLand signed a major R&D agreement with Debiopharm S.A., covering the latter’s development of TcLand’s sc28AT fusion protein, a monovalent CD28 antagonist in preclinical development. TcLand also raised €2.6 million earlier this year in a private placement with private and corporate investors.
For more information on TcLand, please visit: www.tcland-biotech.com
This press release may contain forward-looking statements. As such, they do not guarantee future performance; there are risks and uncertainties. Future scientific, preclinical, clinical, regulatory, manufacturing, financial, commercial, business outcomes may be substantially different from those suggested by the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements are effective only as per the date at the top of this press release.
Press contacts Alizé PR Caroline Carmagnol +33 (0) 6 64 18 99 59 caroline.carmagnol@wanadoo.fr TCLAND – ahuriez@tcland-biotech.com
