BERNE, Switzerland, September 7, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Pevion Biotech AG announced today the appointment of Evert Kueppers as its new Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Thomas Stauffer.
"We would like to thank Thomas for his excellent contributions over the years and wish him all the best in his new position," said Klaus Breiner of BB Biotech Ventures and Chairman of the Board of Directors. "We are very pleased that we could attract Evert to become the new CEO of Pevion. With his experience and hands-on approach, Evert is a perfect fit to lead the Company in this exciting phase."
Prior to joining Pevion, Evert Kueppers was CEO of Pieris AG, a Munich-based biotechnology company, which he successfully restructured and refinanced, raising a total US$ 45 million. Before that, Evert was Head of Business Development at IDEA AG, where he was instrumental in corporate development and partnering activities. Before joining the biotech industry, he spent several years in the International Operations of BASF Pharma (now Abbott Labs) and was a management consultant with the global health care team of AT Kearney in London. Evert holds an advanced degree in Biomedical Sciences from Leiden University and an MBA from RSM/Erasmus University. He currently also serves on the Board of Cenix Bioscience.
At the same time, the Company secured further financing commitments of CHF 10 million from its existing investors, BZ Bank, BB Biotech Ventures and Core Capital. Pevion plans to raise additional financing over the next twelve months to broaden and further its pipeline. "Pevion has reached an important stage in its development as its candidate products reach for critical milestones. This financing commitment should take the Company a long way towards achieving further product validation and reaching important company value inflection points," added Joseph Manko of BZ Bank and member of the Board of Directors. "We are looking forward to working with Evert to deliver on Pevion's potential."
"The use of virus-like particles is a proven approach to develop effective and safe vaccines," said Evert Kueppers, CEO of Pevion Biotech. "I am excited to take on this new challenge to bring the company to the next level, working with a team of highly skilled researchers and vaccine developers."
About Pevion Biotech
Pevion Biotech is an independent Swiss vaccine company that develops next generation vaccines based on its clinically and commercially validated virosome technology. Its proprietary pipeline includes a clinical stage candidiasis vaccine and preclinical programmes in RSV and pandemic flu. A clinical stage malaria vaccine candidate has been outlicensed and the Company`s technology is being used for an HIV vaccine currently in human trials. The Company has in-house development capability and expertise, including a state-of-the-art and industrially scalable GMP manufacturing process. Located near Bern, Pevion was founded in 2002 as an industrial spin-off of Bachem AG (SWX: BANB) and Berna Biotech, now Crucell, (SWX: CRX), and raised a total of CHF 45 million to date from its founders and investors, BZ Bank, BB Biotech Venture and Core Capital Partners.
About Virosomes
Virosomes are the only regulatory and market-approved vaccine technology to fulfill carrier and adjuvant functions in one. Essentially, virosomes represent reconstituted empty influenza virus envelopes, devoid of the genetic material of the source virus. As such, virosomes do not replicate and are therefore an ideal combination of carrier plus adjuvant for almost any given antigen, including peptide or protein derived antigens. Two virosome-based vaccines (Epaxal(R) and Inflexal(R) V, marketed by Crucell) are licensed in over 40 countries, and more than 50 million doses of these vaccines have been commercially distributed, thereby providing a solid safety and efficacy track record.