14 March 2019
BerGenBio ASA (“BerGenBio” or “the Company”) announces key appointments to executive team and Board to prepare organisation for next phase of development
Bergen, Norway, 14 March 2019 – BerGenBio ASA (OSE:BGBIO), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a pipeline of first-in-class AXL kinase inhibitors to treat multiple cancer indications, announces today changes made to its executive team and Board of Directors, to strengthen the organisation and prepare it for late stage clinical trials towards the second half of 2019.
(i) Executive team
Specifically, Dr Dominic Smethurst (MA MBChB MRCP MFPM) has been appointed Chief Medical Officer (CMO) in a permanent capacity taking over from Interim CMO Dr Alan Barge. Dominic trained as a physician in Cambridge and Nottingham and brings two decades of experience in clinical development and leadership roles within the biopharma industry and leading consultancies including AstraZeneca, Amgen, Prescient Life Sciences and ICON.
Most recently, he served as CMO at Tusk Therapeutics Ltd, an immune-oncology biotech which was acquired by Roche in 2018.
Further, the Company has made key hires strengthening its regulatory affairs function and announces that Dr Anthony Brown will be leaving his post as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) to pursue other opportunities.
(ii) Changes to the Board
Following the Company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on 13 March 2019 the following Board changes have become effective:
- Grunde Eriksen,
- Dr Debra Barker, and
- Dr Pamela A. Trail
have joined the Board as Non-Executive Directors.
Grunde Eriksen is the founder and CEO of Altitude Capital AS, a private investment company established in 2016. Grunde is an experienced capital markets advisor and investor. He began his career in 1998 in Stockholms Enskilda Bank’s (“SEB”) corporate finance division in Stockholm before moving to the equity capital markets team in London. He then spent a further two years at SEB in Norway before joining Arctic Securities in 2007 as a partner working in equity sales. He is a Norwegian citizen.
Dr Debra Barker is a seasoned clinical development executive with experience from Novartis, Roche, Smithkline Beecham and Knoll and served until recently as the Chief Medical and Development Officer at Polyphor Ltd. Dr Barker has a Diploma in Pharmaceutical Medicine and received a MSc in immunology from the King’s College in London and a Medical Degree from the Queens College, Cambridge, UK. She is a UK-Swiss citizen.
Dr Pamela A. Trail is CSO of Molecular Partners AG. Previously she held key strategic oncology leadership roles at Regeneron, MedImmune, Bayer Healthcare and BMS and served as CSO at Seattle Genetics. Dr. Trail received her Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT and was a postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, NY.
Stein Holst Annexstad, Hilde Furberg, Kari Grønås, and Jon Øyvind Eriksen have resigned from the Board. Sveinung Hole, previously a Non-Executive Director, has become Chair, and Stener Kvinnsland remains as a Non-Executive Director.
Sveinung Hole, Chair at BerGenBio, commented: «We welcome Grunde, Debra and Pamela to the Board. All three are highly experienced in their respective fields and will add significant strength and depth to our Board at this exciting time for BerGenBio as we push towards key value-driving catalysts this year and beyond. Their insight and knowledge will be invaluable as we focus on initiating late stage clinical trials with bemcentinib in acute myeloid leukaemia and non-small cell lung cancer, as well as initiating a first-in-patient phase 1b trial for our BGB149 antibody.
«I would also like to thank Stein, Hilde, Kari and Jon for their valuable contribution to BerGenBio’s progress during their time on the Board, we wish them well in their future endeavours.»
-End-
For more information, please contact
Richard Godfrey
CEO, BerGenBio ASA
+47 917 86 304
Rune Skeie
CFO, BerGenBio ASA
+47 917 86 513
Media relations
Crux Advisers
Jan Petter Stiff
stiff@crux.no
+47 995 13 891
Consilium Strategic Communications
Mary-Jane Elliott, Chris Welsh, Jessica Hodgson, Nicholas Brown
bergenbio@consilium-comms.com
+44 20 3709 5700
Forward looking statements
This announcement may contain forward-looking statements, which as such are not historical facts, but are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions. These assumptions are inherently subject to significant known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors. Such risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other important factors could cause actual events to differ materially from the expectations expressed or implied in this announcement by such forward-looking statements.
This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.
About Oncoinvent
Oncoinvent is developing Radspherin®, a receptor-independent alpha radiation therapy that leverages the unique anatomy of the abdominal cavity to destroy residual micrometastases using a single, highly localized dose of alpha radiation. The initial clinical focus is treatment of ovarian and colorectal cancer patients after surgical removal of the primary tumor and visible metastases in the peritoneum, the thin membrane lining the abdominal cavity and covering the abdominal organs.
This radiopharmaceutical is designed to prevent or delay recurrence in the peritoneal cavity, keeping patients disease-free for longer than the current standard of care and thereby also impacting overall survival. It is broadly applicable to any cancer that spreads to the peritoneum, e.g. ovarian, colorectal, and gastric cancers. Radspherin® stands out for its simplicity, excellent safety profile, and seamless integration into existing surgical workflows. Oncoinvent’s product is easy to use, avoids systemic delivery and significant toxicity. It is also differentiated in being simple to manufacture, scalable, and supply de-risked.
Data from two trials in ovarian (phase 1) and colorectal (phase 1/2a) cancers, are highly promising, showing an excellent safety profile and meaningful signals of efficacy. Interim data from an ongoing, randomized, controlled phase 2 ovarian cancer trial is expected in 2026. With cost-effective manufacturing, blockbuster potential, active pharma partnership momentum, plus strong endorsements from leading experts, Oncoinvent is built for scale and commercial success, and is set to become the new standard for post-surgical cancer care. The Company was founded by the originators of Algeta and Xofigo (acquired by Bayer).
