DGAP-News: CEVEC Pharmaceuticals GmbH / Key word(s): Miscellaneous
CEVEC further strengthens organization to drive industrialization and
commercialization of CAP(R) technologies
29.06.2016 / 08:30
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
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CEVEC further strengthens organization to drive industrialization and
commercialization of CAP(R) technologies
- Life sciences industry veteran Bart Bergstein to join CEVEC's
Supervisory Board
- Two newly formed Scientific Advisory Boards for CEVEC's CAP(R)GT and
CAP(R)Go technologies will further drive industrialization
Cologne, Germany, June 29th, 2016 - CEVEC Pharmaceuticals GmbH (CEVEC), the
expert in the production of tailor-made recombinant glycoproteins and gene
therapy vectors, today announced a strengthening of the Company reflective
of its strategic progress.
Bart Bergstein, industry veteran and well-known former life sciences
venture capitalist, has been appointed to CEVEC's Supervisory Board,
replacing Rainer Christine, who stepped down for personal reasons.
Bart Bergstein brings over 25 years of experience in finance, executive
management and investment in innovative life sciences companies to CEVEC's
Advisory Board. Bart's career includes milestones such as the establishment
of the life sciences venture team within ABN AMRO where he and his team
built a portfolio of over EUR 100 million in life sciences investments and
realizing multiple highly profitable exits. He co-founded Forbion Capital
Partners, a Dutch based venture capital firm managing over EUR 500 million
in various funds. High return investments under Bart's responsibility
included Rhein Biotech, Crucell and AM Pharma. Bart also has executive
experience as CFO of Cellnovo Group SA where he managed a successful IPO on
Euronext Paris.
Bart Bergstein said: "I am looking forward to contributing to the future
development of CEVEC and helping to accelerate the Company's growth. With
its outstanding platforms, CEVEC, today, is a very attractive company in
the emerging fields of gene therapy vector production and difficult to
produce proteins. With many key opportunities ahead of CEVEC, it's
certainly a very exciting time to join the Board."
Furthermore, CEVEC implements two new Scientific Advisory Boards, which
will specifically support the Company to further drive industrialization
and commercialization of its proprietary expression platforms; CAP(R)GT for
gene therapy vector production and CAP(R)Go for glycosylated difficult to
produce proteins.
The new CAP(R)GT Scientific Advisory Board, consisting of Dr. Otto Merten,
expert in viral vector production from Généthon, and Prof. Dr. Stefan
Kochanek, gene therapy specialist from the University of Ulm, both support
the Company by enlarging its knowledgebase and network with respect to the
industrial scale CAP(R)GT derived lentivirus (LV), adenovirus (AV) and
adeno-associated virus (AAV) development and production.
The CAP(R)Go Board, consisting of Prof. Dr. Thomas Noll, specialist in
industrial cell culture technologies from the University of Bielefeld and
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Hubbuch, expert in downstream processing of proteins from
the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, are focusing on the
industrialization of CAP(R)Go-based protein manufacturing.
"Our CAP(R) technologies close gaps created by HEK293 and CHO based
production systems regarding industrial viral vector production and
manufacturing of proteins previously out of reach," commented Frank Ubags,
Chief Executive Officer of CEVEC Pharmaceuticals GmbH. "By involving
internationally recognized experts, we expect to further accelerate the
execution of our strategy to set new global standards in biopharmaceutical
production. We plan, also, to strengthen our Boards with the further
appointment of key industry experts as we further grow and penetrate
markets."
About the Scientific Advisory Board CAP(R)GT members:
Dr. Otto-Wilhelm Merten is Head of Applied Vector Studies at Généthon, a
department that helps to innovate and optimize vector production. Dr.
Merten has long term experience in the development of virus production
processes, first for vaccination and then for treatment applications,
gained at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France and at the Sandoz Research
Institut in Vienna, Austria. During his career, Dr. Merten has had more
than 100 articles published in international scientific journals.
Prof. Dr. Stefan Kochanek brings to the board 20 years of scientific
expertise in virus-based gene therapy vectors. Prof. Kochanek started his
career at the Institute of Genetics in Cologne, Germany, before he moved to
Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, USA, developing improved virus-based
vector technologies. Since 2003 he is Director of the Department of Gene
Therapy at the University of Ulm, Germany.
About the Scientific Advisory Board CAP(R)Go members:
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Hubbuch brings more than 15 years of experience in
chemical engineering, biotechnology process development, biomolecular
separation and engineering from leading positions at international
Universities and Institutes including: University of Karlsruhe, Germany;
Technical University of Denmark; Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf,
Germany. Prof. Hubbuch currently heads the Institute of Engineering in Life
Science Section IV: Biomolecular Separation Engineering at the Karlsruhe
Institute of Technology, Germany. He is co-founder of GoSilico a spin-off
from his group in Karlsruhe.
Prof. Dr. Thomas Noll started his career in 2000 as Vice Head of Cell
Culture Technology Group at the Institute for Biotechnology at the
Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany. Prof. Noll is full Professor and
Chair for Cell Culture Technology at the University Bielefeld, Germany and
is co-founder and member of the board of Xell AG, a company that develops
and markets high quality culture media for production of biopharmaceuticals
and diagnostics with animal and human cell cultures. In addition, Prof.
Noll works as Deputy Scientific Director of Bielefeld Center for
Biotechnology (CeBiTec), Germany.
About CEVEC:
CEVEC is a center of expertise for the production of biopharmaceuticals
using a unique human cell-based expression system.
CAP(R)GT is a regulatory endorsed expression platform for scalable viral
vector production. CAP(R)GT suspension cells grow to high cell densities
and show a broad viral propagation spectrum. Gene therapy vectors such as
lentivirus (LV), adenovirus (AV) and adeno-associated virus (AAV) can be
produced at industrial scale. CAP(R)GT enables better scale-up and
competitive production costs when compared to adherent cell culture
systems.
CAP(R)Go enables the production of proteins previously out of reach. The
expression platform comprises a portfolio of glyco-optimized human
suspension cell lines for tailor made glycosylation of recombinant
proteins. The cells highly efficiently produce a broad range of difficult
to express glycoproteins and provide authentic human post-translational
modifications.
More information: www.cevec.com.
Follow CEVEC on LinkedIn.
Contact:
<pre>
CEVEC Pharmaceuticals GmbH MC Services AG
Frank Ubags Anne Hennecke
Chief Executive Officer Public Relations
T.: +49 221 46020800 T.: +49 211 52925222
E.: ubags@cevec.com E.: anne.hennecke@mc-services.eu
www.cevec.com
</pre>
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DGAP-News: CEVEC further strengthens organization to drive industrialization and commercialization of CAP(R) technologies
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