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Appointment strengthens Company for future development of human
antibody discovery technology and product candidates
OSLO, NORWAY - February 13, 2008
The human antibody company, Affitech AS, announced today the appointment of Dr. Sergej Kiprijanov as the Vice President of Discovery Research and Preclinical Development. Joining Affitech at a key stage in the company's growth, Dr Kiprijanov brings a wealth of experience in the antibody therapeutic field. Previously CSO of Novoplant GmbH, a German plant biotech company developing antibodies for oral applications, Dr. Kiprijanov was also Head of Research with Affimed Therapeutics AG in Heidelberg, Germany, focusing on engineering human antibodies and antibody fragments for cancer indications.
Welcoming the appointment, Affitech CEO Dr Martin Welschof said, "Dr Kiprijanov brings the experience and skillset Affitech requires as we start to improve our extremely promising MBAS and CBAS technologies and develop our product candidates. We are indeed delighted to have Sergej join our R&D team. I have known Sergej since he was a researcher at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany playing a key role in creating novel bispecific antibody formats for use in tumor therapy. He has generated an impressive number of publications and patents in the antibody field from his work both in the technology area as well as in development of antibody product candidates"
Prior to moving to Germany, Dr. Kiprijanov headed the Laboratory of Cellular Engineering at the Russian State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology "Vector" (Novosibirsk, Russia). Dr. Kiprijanov graduated in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Novosibirsk State University (Novosibirsk, Russia) in 1983 and received his Ph.D. degree from the Institute of Genetics and Selection of Industrial Microorganisms (Moscow, Russia) in 1990. Dr. Kiprijanov has authored more than 60 research articles, reviews and book chapters and is named as an inventor on 20 patents and patent applications.
Note to editors:
Affitech AS is a privately held human therapeutic antibody discovery and development company with headquarters and R&D facilities in Oslo, Norway and its US subsidiary in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The Company's current disease focus is oncology and it utilizes two discrete but unique approaches for the discovery of fully human antibodies - (i) Molecule Based Antibody Discovery, and (ii) Cell Based Antibody Discovery. Molecule Based Antibody Discovery involves proprietary PhagemidScreeN and AffiScreeN™ technologies and uses validated targets for discovery purpose. Cell Based Antibody Discovery is based on CBAS™ technology, which is a "reverse-screening" approach for discovering antibodies and their cognate targets utilizing disease-specific cells. Several of the Company's proprietary product candidates currently in development were generated by CBAS™. Affitech also sells its proprietary Protein L product line for the purification of antibody and antibody fragments. Affitech offers collaborators a flexible business model and very competitive price structure with low royalty stacking. The Company has concluded deals with commercial organizations such as Roche, Peregrine, XOMA, NatImmune, Viventia, Dyax, Micromet, Pharmexa and others. Further information at www.affitech.com
For further information please contact Affitech AS
Martin Welschof, CEO
Tel: +47 22 95 88 77
Email:
Web page: http://www.affitech.com
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