Kymab strengthens Board of Directors with appointments

01-Nov-2012 - United Kingdom

Kymab, a monoclonal antibody biopharmaceutical company, today announces the appointments of Christian Itin, David Chiswell and Richard Davis to the Board as Non-Executive Directors.

Christian Itin currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer and designated Chairman of the Board of Cytos Biotechnology, a public Swiss biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of CYT003 in allergic asthma. Prior to joining Cytos, Christian served as Micromet’s President and Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the company’s Board of Directors from May 2006 through the company’s March 2012 acquisition by Amgen for $1.2 billion in cash. During his 13 years tenure at Micromet, Christian advanced Micromet’s bispecific T-cell engager (BiTE) technology into clinical trials, executed numerous important partnerships, led the reverse merger with CancerVax that listed Micromet on NASDAQ, raised more than $300 million in private and public financings and led the acquisition of Micromet by Amgen. Prior to joining Micromet in 1999, Dr Itin co-founded Zyomyx, a protein chip company based in Hayward, California. Dr Itin received a Diploma in biology and a PhD in cell biology from the University of Basel. In addition, he performed post-doctoral research at the Biocenter of Basel University and at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He is currently a non-executive director of Zyngenia.

David Chiswell co-founded Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT) in 1990 and was responsible for operational management, serving as CEO from 1996 to 2002. CAT listed on the London Stock exchange in April 1997 and NASDAQ in June 2001 raising over £120m on the public markets. Since leaving CAT in 2002 he has focused on the development of early stage biotechnology companies, having previously served as a director of Arakis, non-executive chairman of Sosei, Arrow Therapeutics and Daniolabs, and as CEO of Nabriva Therapeutics (2009 to 2012). Dr Chiswell currently serves as chairman of Nabriva Therapeutics and Albireo Pharma. He is a past chairman of the UK’s BioIndustry association (BIA) and in 2006 he was awarded an OBE by HM The Queen for services to the biotechnology industry.

Richard Davis currently manages direct healthcare investments as part of Wellcome Trusts diversified investment portfolio, responsible for a global portfolio of privately held biotech, diagnostic, healthcare IT and service companies. Previously, Richard helped to establish and for 6 years was responsible for Wellcome’s £200m drug discovery and development fund, investing and commercialising early-stage projects within academia and public and private companies. Before joining the Wellcome Trust he spent 6 years in operational and business development roles within the private and public biotech sector. Dr Davis received his PhD in biochemical pharmacology from University of Leicester.

https://www.bionity.com/en/news/140314/kymab-strengthens-board-of-directors-with-appointments.html