STRASBOURG, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:
Transgene (Paris:TNG), a biotech company that designs and develops virus-based immunotherapeutics against cancer, announced that the Board, at its meeting today, approved the appointment of Hedi Ben Brahim as the Company’s new Chairman and CEO, effective January 1st, 2021. Hedi Ben Brahim, who has been a member of Transgene’s Board since May 2019, will replace Philippe Archinard. Philippe Archinard has led the company since 2005 and will remain a member of the Board of Transgene.
Alain Mérieux, honorary Chairman of Transgene, said: I would like to thank Philippe Archinard for his commitment to Transgene over the last 15 years. Under his leadership, the Company has demonstrated the potential of virus-based immunotherapies and developed world class innovative therapies that could be game-changers in the field of cancer treatment. Based on these achievements, I believe Transgene is now ideally placed to further demonstrate the value of its approaches. I am confident that Hedi Ben Brahim, together with Transgene’s highly skilled team, will build on this strong foundation to generate multiple novel virus-based immunotherapeutics that will both deliver important clinical benefits to cancer patients and value for shareholders.”
“It is a great honor and pleasure to join the Transgene executive team. I am excited to take on this new role having seen the significant potential of Transgene’s technology platforms and their potential to bring improved clinical benefits to cancer patients globally. Trangene’s Invir.IO™ and myvac® platforms are significant breakthroughs in multi-armed oncolytic virus therapy and individualized vaccines respectively. In addition, with the positive Phase 1b/2 data of TG4001, Transgene has established the relevance of its virus-based immunotherapy for HPV-positive cancer patients. I look forward to continuing the development of this promising candidate and further strengthen our exciting immune-oncology pipeline”, added Hedi Ben Brahim.
Hedi Ben Brahim joins Transgene from Institut Mérieux where he was Vice-President for Immunotherapy since September 2018. In this role, he was the Chairman of ABL Inc., a contract research & development, and contract biomanufacturing organization (CRO/CMO). Prior to joining the Institut Mérieux, he was General Manager at a subsidiary of Vallourec, a solutions provider to the energy sector. Hedi began his career in the public sector at the Ministry of the Economy, Action and Public Accounts, then at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. He is a graduate of the École Polytechnique and the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris.
Philippe Archinard will become Executive Vice-President, Technological Innovation and Scientific Partnerships at Institut Mérieux. Philippe Archinard will remain Board Member of Transgene.
Transgene’s Board has also been notified of the change of the Director representing TSGH (Institut Mérieux); Dominique Takizawa is to be replaced by Sandrine Flory as of January 1st, 2021. Sandrine has been Chief Financial Officer of Institut Mérieux since March 2020. She has spent 18 years at bioMérieux, in various positions in finance. She was CFO for bioMérieux EMEA from 2014 to 2020. Prior to joining bioMérieux, Sandrine spent 9 years at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in France and Australia. Sandrine holds a master in Finance and Accounting and a MS in Business Valuation and Transmission from the Université Lyon 2 (France).
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About Transgene
Transgene (Euronext: TNG) is a biotechnology company focused on designing and developing targeted immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer. Transgene’s programs utilize viral vector technology with the goal of indirectly or directly killing cancer cells.
The Company’s clinical-stage programs consist of two therapeutic vaccines (TG4001 for the treatment of HPV-positive cancers, and TG4050, the first individualized therapeutic vaccine based on the myvac® platform) as well as two oncolytic viruses (TG6002 for the treatment of solid tumors, and BT-001, the first oncolytic virus based on the Invir.IO™ platform).
With Transgene’s myvac® platform, therapeutic vaccination enters the field of precision medicine with a novel immunotherapy that is fully tailored to each individual. The myvac® approach allows the generation of a virus-based immunotherapy that encodes patient-specific mutations identified and selected by Artificial Intelligence capabilities provided by its partner NEC.
With its proprietary platform Invir.IO™, Transgene is building on its viral vector engineering expertise to design a new generation of multifunctional oncolytic viruses. Transgene has an ongoing Invir.IO™ collaboration with AstraZeneca.
Additional information about Transgene is available at: www.transgene.fr
Follow us on Twitter: @TransgeneSA
Disclaimer
This press release contains forward-looking statements, which are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. The occurrence of any of these risks could have a significant negative outcome for the Company’s activities, perspectives, financial situation, results, regulatory authorities’ agreement with development phases, and development. The Company’s ability to commercialize its products depends on but is not limited to the following factors: positive pre-clinical data may not be predictive of human clinical results, the success of clinical studies, the ability to obtain financing and/or partnerships for product manufacturing, development and commercialization, and marketing approval by government regulatory authorities. For a discussion of risks and uncertainties which could cause the Company’s actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, please refer to the Risk Factors (“Facteurs de Risque”) section of the Universal Registration Document, available on the AMF website (http://www.amf-france.org) or on Transgene’s website (www.transgene.fr). Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and Transgene undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.
