Covagen Names Elias Papatheodorou Chief Business Officer
ZURICH-SCHLIEREN, Switzerland, April 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Covagen today announced the expansion of its senior management team with the appointment of Elias Papatheodorou as chief business officer. He brings 20 years of work experience including 13 years in the life science sector with a track record of fundraising and collaborative agreements.
Prior to joining Covagen, Mr. Papatheodorou was senior vice president business development and operations at Medigene where he led the business development efforts for the company's pipeline and technology and closed the Asian-Australian licensing agreement for Medigene's lead oncology asset to Syncore. Prior to Medigene, Mr. Papatheodorou was chief executive officer of Novosom where he completed a series of collaborative agreements with pharmaceutical companies in Europe, U.S. and Asia, led the company's fundraising activities and ultimately closed the sale of Novosom's Smarticles technology to Marina Biotech. Mr. Papatheodorou was also vice president of business development and marketing for the medical imaging company A.T.I. and held positions of increasing responsibility at The Coca-Cola Company and Philip Morris.
"We are fortunate to have someone with Elias' experience join our executive team, particularly as we continue to validate our bispecific FynomAb technology and prepare to bring our lead drug candidate COVA322, a bispecific TNF/IL-17A inhibitor, into the clinic," said Franz Hefti, chairman of the board of Covagen. "The flexibility of the architecture of our FynomAbs is unique in bispecific technology and Elias will play a key role in advancing discussions with potential partners."
Mr. Papatheodorou holds a bachelor's degree from Ithaca College and graduate education from Cornell University.
About Covagen
Covagen develops bispecific FynomAbs by fusing its human Fynomer binding proteins to antibodies resulting in therapeutics with novel modes-of-action and enhanced efficacy in the treatment of inflammatory diseases and cancer. The ability to fuse Fynomers to multiple sites on an antibody allows Covagen to create FynomAbs with tailored architecture to maximize efficacy. FynomAbs maintain the advantageous drug-like properties of antibodies such as excellent stability and long half-life. Covagen is actively moving COVA322, its lead bispecific anti-TNF/IL-17A FynomAb, through development and expects to initiate a Phase I/IIa trial in patients with psoriasis in the first quarter of 2014.