Copenhagen, Denmark – Symphogen, a private biopharmaceutical company developing superior antibody therapeutics (monoclonal, monoclonal mixtures and polyclonal) to treat cancer, infectious and autoimmune diseases, announced today the completion of its senior management team with the addition of a new Chief Scientific/Medical Officer, Ivan D. Horak, M.D.,FACP and a new Chief Business Officer, Gayle M Mills.

Dr. Horak joins Symphogen from Enzon, where he has been Chief Scientific Officer since 2005 and more recently President of Research and Development. Prior to that, he held senior research leadership positions in R & D at Immunomedics, and Pharmacia & Upjohn, as well as the Janssen Research Foundation. He is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology, with multiple NDAs to his credit, Camptosar® in Metastatic colorectal cancer , Aromasin® for patients with advanced breast cancer and Oncaspar® for patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Ms. Mills joins Symphogen from ROXRO PHARMA, Inc. in California, where she was EVP of Business Operations & Chief Business Officer for the last five years through the company’s recently completed acquisition by Luitpold Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a subsidiary of Daiichi Sanyko. Prior to that, Mills served as Senior Vice President for Busines Development at Abgenix, Inc, and earlier held several senior Business Development positions at Roche Biosciences, Affymax N.V. and Syntex. In addition to her extensive business development, she brings strong, marketing, sales and operations experience to Symphogen.

Kirsten Drejer, PhD., Symphogen Chief Executive Officer, commented,  

“Dr. Horak has had multiple successes in taking clinical compounds into the clinic, many of which became approved oncology therapies. We expect his experience to be invaluable as we progress Symphogen’s early stage clinical oncology pipeline and to move our preclinical oncology programs to proof-of-concept in humans.”

“Similarly, Ms. Mills has played key strategic roles in both early biotechnology and more mature pharmaceutical companies, with successes in commercial in- and out-licensing, M&A, and alliance management. Given Symphogen’s extensive platform and pipeline, especially in infectious and autoimmune diseases, her skills and track-record in corporate alliance building will be critical as our programs advance and seek pharmaceutical partners.”

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.

Contacts:

Dr. Kirsten Drejer,
Chief Executive Officer,
Symphogen A/S,
Phone: +45 22 10 99 59 or +45 45 26 50 50
E-mail: kd@symphogen.com

Mr. Thomas Feldthus,
Chief Financial Officer,
Symphogen A/S,
Phone: +45 22 10 99 57 or +45 45 26 50 50
E-mail: tf@symphogen.com

Ms. Heidi K. Roennest,
Executive Office Manager & PA to CEO Kirsten Drejer,
Symphogen A/S,
Phone: +45 61 18 74 94
E-mail: hkr@symphogen.com