Pharmexa appoints new Chief Executive Officer and implements further cost-saving measures

Summary:  Dr. Achim Kaufhold (50) becomes new Chief Executive Officer and
succeeds Jakob Schmidt. The board of directors in Pharmexa intends to nominate
Jakob Schmidt as a new board member for election at the next general assembly
of the company. Pharmexa is also taking further measures towards the reduction
of its cash burn in order to protect the company's assets and shareholder value 

Change in management
Pharmexa's Board of Directors decided today to appoint Achim Kaufhold as its
new Chief Executive Officer, effective 2 July, 2008. Achim Kaufhold, M.D, Ph.D,
was recently hired as Pharmexa's Executive Vice President, Chief Scientific
Officer & Chief Medical Officer. Prior to joining Pharmexa, Achim Kaufhold held
a number of executive positions in research, product & business development at
GlaxoSmithKline, Berna Biotech (now a Crucell company) and Chiron (now part of
Novartis). He succeeds Jakob Schmidt who will join the board of directors
contingent on shareholder approval at the next general assembly. 

The Chairman of the Board of Directors, Ole Steen Andersen, says: “On behalf of
the entire board of directors, I would like to thank Jakob Schmidt for his
dedicated work over the last years. As CEO, Jakob has had a transforming
influence on Pharmexa: He led Pharmexa through two company acquisitions and
five new financing rounds over the past four years, creating a new platform for
the company. During his tenure, Pharmexa's shareholder base grew from 5.000 to
15.000 shareholders on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange and Pharmexa was twice
voted one of the best work places in Denmark. It is worth noting that our key
internal programs today are based on technologies and products brought in and
developed by Jakob and his team.” 

Ole Steen Andersen continues: “I am very pleased that Dr. Achim Kaufhold has
accepted this new assignment. His extensive experience in general management,
product development, partnership building and deal making in the international
biotech and pharmaceutical industry positions him ideally to lead Pharmexa
forward. This includes expeditious development of our current internal product
pipeline, complementing the pipeline by in-licensing of product candidates and
the continued investigation of strategic alternatives for the company.” 

Jakob Schmidt says: “Pharmexa is entering a new phase of development and now is
the right time for a change. I have every confidence that Achim Kaufhold will
lead the company to success and will support him and his team wherever I can.” 

Dr. Achim Kaufhold comments: “Pharmexa has accumulated significant proprietary
assets and capabilities over the last years that enable the company to develop
products from in-house discovery through clinical development and registration.
Though we are initiating further cost-cutting measures, it is important that we
preserve the company's assets and R&D capabilities in the best interest of the
shareholders. I believe that in particular our universal influenza vaccine is
cutting edge and has enormous commercial potential. Priorities over the next
few months will include the strengthening of the company's financial position
and proactively exploring strategic moves, including mergers and acquisitions
to secure a sustainable business which creates value.” 

Pipeline focus
Pharmexa will refocus its resources on the development of its preclinical
pipeline while continuing to support the ongoing GV1001 TeloVac Phase III trial
in pancreatic cancer.  The company's collaborations will continue with H.
Lundbeck on the Alzheimers vaccine, and Bavarian Nordic on the AutoVac™ DNA
HER-2 breast cancer vaccine. 

The Telovac trial is a prospective, phase III, controlled, multicentre,
randomised clinical trial comparing combination gemcitabine and capecitabine
therapy with concurrent and sequential chemoimmunotherapy using GV1001 vaccine
in locally advanced and metastatic pancreatic cancer. The primary endpoint is
survival, and the secondary endpoints include time to progression and safety.
The study is planned to include a total of 1,110 patients. The trial is
supported by the National Cancer Research Institute and the Pancreas Cancer
Sub-Group of the NCRI and is funded by Cancer Research UK through the Liverpool
Cancer Trials Unit. Pharmexa's annual contributions to the study of
approximately DKK 7 million pays for vaccine for the study and a part of the
costs related to monitoring and data collection. Due to the limited costs and
the significant commercial opportunity, GV1001 therefore presents mostly upside
potential for Pharmexa's shareholders. 

In infectious diseases, a malaria vaccine funded by the US National Institutes
of Health is moving into clinical development and Pharmexa will focus its
internal resources on the development of a universal influenza vaccine with the
potential to revolutionize the field. A universal influenza vaccine will
provide protection against seasonal and pandemic influenza viruses. This would
be a tremendous competitive advantage over currently marketed influenza
vaccines. The vaccine is based on the T-cell epitope vaccine technology of
Pharmexa-Epimmune in San Diego, California. Pharmexa believes its technology is
at the forefront to develop a truly universal influenza vaccine. Likewise a
universal cancer vaccine that is currently in early preclinical development is
based on rationally designed and broadly conserved T-cell epitopes from several
tumor antigens. 

Cost reductions
In order to reduce the cash burn and as a result of a more focused pipeline
Pharmexa's work force will be reduced by another approximately 40% to 41
employees divided equally between Pharmexa's operations in San Diego and
Hørsholm. In addition to other cost saving initiatives, these measures will
prolong Pharmexa's financial time horizon. By the end of May 2008 Pharmexa's
cash position was approximately DKK 92 million. 


Hørsholm, June 25, 2008


Ole Steen Andersen
Chairman of the Board of Directors

Additional information:
Ole Steen Andersen, tel. +45 3965 0979
Jakob Schmidt, tel +45 4516 2525

For the editors: Pharmexa A/S is a development stage company in the field of
active immunotherapy. Pharmexa's proprietary technology platforms are broadly
applicable, allowing the company to address critical targets in cancer and
chronic diseases, as well as serious infectious diseases such as HIV,
influenza, hepatitis and malaria. Collaborative agreements include H. Lundbeck,
Bavarian Nordic and Ichor Medical Systems. With operations in Denmark and USA,
Pharmexa employs approximately 40 employees and is listed on the Copenhagen
Stock Exchange under the trading symbol PHARMX.