Symphogen Appoints New Medical Advisory Board And Scientific Advisory Board Member

Copenhagen, Denmark, 25 May 2005: Symphogen A/S announced today that it has appointed a new, world renowned, Medical Advisory Board (MAB) and added a new member to its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB).  These appointments include several leading international experts in clinical development and manufacturing of therapeutic antibodies and in the fields of infectious disease and cancer.   

The newly established MAB adds valuable expertise to the clinical development of therapeutic antibodies in Symphogen’s core therapeutic areas.
The new members include:

• Dr. Ronald Levy, MD, Professor of Medicine and Chief, Division of Oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine was instrumental in clinical development development of the CD20 monoclonal antibody Rituxan/Rituximab (Biogen/Idec - Genentech)
• Dr. Stanley Falkow, PhD, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine. World renowned for his knowledge of bacterial immunology
• Dr. Harry B. Greenberg, MD, the Joseph D. Grant Professor of Medicine and Microbiology and Immunology and the Senior Associate Dean for Research and Training at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is a virology expert
• Dr. Thomas Monath, MD, CSO of Acambis. Previously almost 20 years as Director at the Center of Disease Control and Prevention Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases
• Dr. Daniel Levitt, MD, PhD, Vice President, Chief Medical Officer and Head of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs of Dynavax Technologies. He has vast industrial medical experience through scientific management, clinical and regulatory affairs positions at Geron, Sandoz and Hoffmann-LaRoche

Dr. Kirsten Drejer, Symphogen’s CEO, remarked on the MAB appointments: “We are delighted to be joined by these distinguished experts of international repute. We expect to benefit greatly from access to international expertise in the development and commercialization of therapeutic antibodies.” 

The Company has added one new member to its SAB, who adds further technical and manufacturing expertise, and brings the total number of members to four. The new member is:

• Dr. Steven M. Chamow, PhD, Vice President, Process Sciences, Genitope Corporation. He was responsible for the construction and design of Abgenix’ award winning antibody production facility. He has previously held process development and manufacturing roles at Scios and Genentech

The existing SAB members include Chairman, James D. Marks, Director of the Medical-Surgical Intensive Care Unit, San Francisco General Hospital and Professor of Anesthesia and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at University of California, an expert in therapeutic antibodies and phage display technology; Jacqueline Sharon, PhD, Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Boston University Medical Center and the inventor of the licensed Symphage^TM technology; and Hansjörg Hauser, PhD, Head of the Molecular Biology Division at the German Research Center for Biotechnology and a specialist within site-specific integration and hot spot cell lines. 

Commenting on the SAB appointment, Symphogen’s CSO, Dr John Haurum added: “Our established SAB provides Symphogen with unparalleled access to technical and manufacturing expertise, directly applicable to our programmes. This world renowned international panel are opinion leaders in the fields of therapeutic antibody design and production”. 

- ENDS - 

For more information about Symphogen A/S please contact:

Kirsten Drejer, CEO. Symphogen A/S: +45 45 26 50 59, kd@symphogen.com
John Haurum, CSO, Symphogen A/S: +45 45 26 50 70, jh@symphogen.com

Katja Stout/Ashley Lilly, Northbank Communications: +44 207 886 8150, a.lilly@northbankcommunications.com

Notes to Editors: 

About Symphogen

Symphogen A/S is a biotechnology company pioneering therapeutic products based on natural human antibodies for the treatment and prevention of human disease. Using its proprietary technologies, Symphogen aims to develop and eventually market unique antibody-based products that mimic the diversity, affinity, and specificity of the natural human immune system. Antibody drug candidates are generated using the SymplexTM technology and the selected lead candidate may be polyclonal or monoclonal, depending on the nature of the target. The Company applies its proprietary expression platform, the SympressTM technology, for 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. For more information, please visit www.symphogen.com .

For more information about Symphogen A/S please contact:
Kirsten Drejer, CEO. Symphogen A/S: +45 45 26 50 59, kd@symphogen.com
John Haurum, CSO, Symphogen A/S: +45 45 26 50 70, jh@symphogen.com

Katja Stout/Ashley Lilly, Northbank Communications: +44 207 886 8150, a.lilly@northbankcommunications.com