SYMPHOGEN A/S NAMED BY TORNADO INSIDER AMONG EUROPE'S TOP 100 PRIVATE TECH COMPANIES

27 January, 2005 - The Danish Biotech company Symphogen A/S has been selected as one of the best-performing and innovative high-tech private companies of Europe and Israel in the fourth annual Tornado100 list. Symphogen, headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, was founded in 2000 and specializes in pioneering recombinant natural human antibodies for the treatment and prevention of human disease .

 “We are honored that our efforts have been recognized by Tornado Insider in its ranking of the Top 100 start-ups in Europe and Israel,” said Kirsten Drejer, CEO of Symphogen. “The award acknowledges the fact that our top-quality team has developed a superior platform for generating and producing recombinant truly human polyclonal antibodies. Being a 2004 Tornado100 Winner will allow us to generate more visibility in the international marketplace.” 

The 2004 Tornado100 list can be found on the website of Tornado Insider (www.tornado-insider.com), and includes a profile of Symphogen and the other 99 most promising and innovative emerging companies in the European IT and biotech sectors. 

“The companies Tornado Insider selected are Europe’s technology stars,” said Niels Valkering, Tornado Insider’s Head of Research. “Combining internal analysis with advice from industry specialists, we identified the elite of Europe’s high-tech entrepreneurial vanguard, appreciating excellence both in innovative, commercial and financial performance. Watch these companies in 2005, as the technology they are commercializing today will change tomorrow’s trends.” 

The selection of the 2004 Tornado100 Winners from thousands of candidates was judged according to the following criteria:

• Delivering an innovation that shows the promise to set new standards
• Creating a major new audience
• Supplying a key piece of the ICT infrastructure
• Commanding a significant customer base
• Having the potential to become a global brand or standard
• Influencing a major market
• Receiving a significant amount of funding
• Having a strong valuation for a lucrative exit
• Having a management with previous successful exit experience  

The list was announced during the Tornado Insider/World Financial Symposiums T100 Leadership Forum. This event took place January 26th, 2005 in London and was a gathering of technology CEOs and CFOs eager to gain insights on how to lead their enterprise and their careers to more effective and positive outcomes.

# # #

 CONTACT INFORMATION:

 NOTES TO EDITORS:

About Symphogen

Symphogen A/S is a biotechnology company pioneering therapeutic products based on recombinant natural human antibodies for the treatment and prevention of human disease. By use of its proprietary technologies Symphogen aims to develop and eventually market unique antibody-based products with an antibody composition that mimics the diversity, affinity, and specificity of the natural human immune system. Generation of antibody drug candidates is achieved using either the Symplex^TM or the Symphage^TM technology. The selected lead drug candidate may be polyclonal or monoclonal, depending on the nature of the target. For development and manufacturing of polyclonal antibody drug candidates, designated symphobodies, the Company applies its proprietary expression platform, the Sympress^TM technology, which allows consistent manufacturing of recombinant polyclonal antibody compositions. Symphobodies offer a number of advantages over current plasma-derived immunoglobulins and monoclonal antibody therapies for the treatment of diseases characterized by complex target antigens, such as those found in infectious diseases, allergy, transplant rejection, and cancer. Collectively, Symphogen’s technologies offer best in class antibody therapeutics against both simple and complex target antigens. The commercial potential of symphobodies is expected to be very significant.