ABIVAX Strengthens Executive Management Team With Senior Appointments

PARIS, October 30, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Karl Birthistle, M.D., appointed VP of Global Regulatory Affairs 

Daniel Kenny appointed Chief Commercial Officer & VP of Business Development 

ABIVAX, the Paris-based clinical stage biopharmaceutical company specialised in the development and commercialisation of therapeutic vaccines and anti-viral compounds, today announced the appointments of Karl Birthistle, M.D., and Daniel Kenny to its Executive Management team as VP of Global Regulatory Affairs and Chief Commercial Officer & VP of Business Development, respectively.

ABIVAX is establishing itself as a world leader in specialty vaccine and anti-viral drug development to combat infectious and malignant diseases, by developing a number of innovative therapeutic vaccines and antivirals, including clinical stage products ABX203 therapeutic vaccine against chronic hepatitis B and the antiviral ABX464 against HIV.

These two senior appointments further strengthen the Executive Management team led by Prof. Hartmut Ehrlich, M.D., CEO of ABIVAX and supported by both the Board of Directors and the Company's Scientific Advisory Board.

Prof. Hartmut Ehrlich, M.D., CEO of ABIVAX, said: "ABIVAX is a highly ambitious company that is utilizing novel cutting edge science together with strategic partnerships to develop novel therapeutic vaccines and anti-viral drugs.  This will allow us to reduce the human suffering and economic impact of some of the most important infectious diseases faced by the world today. Karl and Daniel, with whom I have been fortunate to have worked with in the past, are recognised industry leaders in their respective fields, reinforcing the strength of the ABIVAX world-class Executive Team."

Biography of Karl Birthistle M.D., Vice President Global Regulatory Affairs 

Karl Birthistle is a physician with broad experience in a number of therapeutic areas, gained as he progressed from a Cardiology Intern in Dublin to Senior Registrar in Virology at George's Hospital Medical School in London. After more than 10 years treating patients, Karl joined the pharmaceutical and biotech industry and held positions of increasing responsibility in drug, biologics and vaccines development and medical affairs. He has previously worked at SmithKlineBeecham (Harlow, UK), Bayer (Slough, UK), Pharming (Leiden) and Baxter BioScience (Vienna, Austria), where he was Therapeutic Area Head for Immunology and Critical Care. He went on to become Director of Clinical Development and Safety Assessments for Philip Morris (Neuchatel, Switzerland), and then joined Swissmedic (Bern, Switzerland), the regulatory authority in Switzerland, as Deputy Head, Division Clinical Review.

Biography of Daniel Kenny, Chief Commercial Officer & VP Business Development 

Daniel Kenny is an accomplished biopharmaceutical business leader, with almost 30 years' experience in the Global Pharmaceutical industry. In his career he has developed and successfully driven business with industry leaders such as Roche (strategic marketing plans for the launch of Tamiflu^®) and Allergan. Prior to joining ABIVAX, Daniel served as Global Franchise Head at Baxter Vaccines. In this role he led a successful reinvigoration of the base commercial business, significantly exceeding the financial plan for the Franchise in each of the three years of his tenure. Before assuming this post, Daniel served as Vice President Baxter BioScience, EMEA with responsibility for all marketing and key business programmes in support of regional sales exceeding $1.9billion. Daniel completed over 10 years in clinical research in the fields of ophthalmology and HIV/AIDS prior to join the pharmaceutical industry. Daniel is a graduate in Physics from the University of New South Wales and has completed Executive business studies at both INSEAD and the London Business School.

ABIVAX Executive Management team 

• Prof. Hartmut J Ehrlich, M.D., Chief Executive Officer
• Karl Birthistle, M.D., Vice President Global Regulatory Affairs
• Alain Chevallier, Chief Financial Officer
• Bernard Fanget, Vice President Process Development and Manufacturing
• Daniel Kenny, Chief Commercial Officer & Vice President Business Development
• Didier Scherrer Ph. D., Vice President R&D Small Molecules
• Vincent Serra Ph. D., Vice President R&D Viral Vaccines
• Pierre Vandepapelière M.D., Ph. D., Chief Medical Officer & Vice President Clinical Development

ABIVAX Board of Directors 

• Philippe Pouletty, M.D., Chairman (Managing Partner - Truffle Capital)
• Joy Amundson, Former President of Baxter BioScience, BoD of Covidien
• Claude Bertrand, Executive Vice President R&D of Ipsen
• Jean-Jacques Bertrand, Ex CEO of Aventis-Pasteur, President of Pierre Fabre
• Jérôme Gallot, Former CEO of Veolia Transdev and Veolia Environment
• Antoine Pau, Finance Director at Truffle Capital
• Christian Pierret, Former French Minister of Industry
• Jean-Paul Prieels, Former Senior Vice President R&D at GSK Biologicals
• Miguel Sieler, Former Chairman and CEO Bayer France, CEO of Neovacs

ABIVAX Scientific Advisory Board 

• Prof. Luc Teyton, M.D., Ph. D., (Chair) Dept. of Immunology, The Scripps Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA
• Prof. Diane Harper, M.D., Chair, Department of Family and Geriatric Medicine, University of Louisville, KY, USA
• Prof. Christoph Huber, M.D., Former Chair, Hematology-Oncology, University of Mainz, Germany
• Jean-Paul Prieels, Ph.D., Former Vice President R&D at GSK Biologicals, Belgium, BoD ABIVAX
• Prof. Lawrence Stanberry, M.D., Ph. D., Chair, Department of Pediatrics, Columbia University, New York, USA
• Prof. Jamal Tazi, Ph. D., Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Montpellier, France
• Prof. Mark A. Wainberg, M.D., Ph. D., Director McGill University AIDS Centre, Montreal, Canada

About ABIVAX 

ABIVAX is a Paris-based clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on becoming a global leader in the discovery, development and commercialisation of therapeutic vaccines and anti-viral compounds to treat some of the world's most important infectious diseases.

The ABIVAX development portfolio consists of 2 lead compounds that are in clinical stage research: ABX203, a therapeutic vaccine candidate that could be a cure for chronic hepatitis B and ABX464, a novel small molecule against HIV. The broader ABIVAX portfolio includes additional therapeutic vaccines and anti-viral compounds that may enter the clinical stage in the coming 12-18 months.

ABIVAX utilises a technology platform leveraging RNA-protein interaction Interference, B cell and cytotoxic TH1 cell amplification to generate proprietary breakthrough therapies that are designed to help patients clear important pathogenic viruses such as HIV, HBV and HPV.

ABIVAX conducts its research and development in Évry (France) and Montpellier (France). In addition, ABIVAX benefits from long term partnerships with the Cuban Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (Havana, Cuba), the British Columbia Cancer Agency (Vancouver, Canada), the CNRS (Montpellier, France), the Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla, CA, USA), the University of Chicago (Chicago, IL, USA), Brigham Young University (Provo, UT, USA) and the Institut Pasteur (Paris, France). ABIVAX also intends to pursue business development opportunities to access commercial products for licensing agreements as part of its overall corporate strategy.

For more information, please visit the company's website: http://www.abivax.com

Contacts

ABIVA
Prof. Hartmut J. Ehrlich, CEO

Press Relations
Citigate Dewe Rogerson
Ari Levine - Lucie Larguier (Paris)
David Dible (London)
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