Athera elects new Chairman of the Board and moves to new premises
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN –Sept 19, 2013. Athera Biotechnologies AB, a Karolinska Development AB portfolio company, today announced that Gunnar Olsson, former head of the global CV/GI team in AstraZeneca, has been elected new Chairman of the Board. Earlier this year, Tomas Odergren, VP Clinical Development at Karolinska Development AB, joined the Board of Directors.
The extraordinary shareholders meeting in Athera has elected Gunnar Olsson new Chairman of the Board after Per Sjöberg, who has been leading the company for eight years. Dr Olsson joins Athera after 24 years in AstraZeneca, where he has held several senior management positions, mainly within therapy area leadership for cardiovascular and gastrointestinal disease. He holds an MD and PhD from Karolinska Institutet and is specialist in Cardiology and Internal Medicine. Dr Olsson is Honorary Doctor of Medicine at Gothenburg University.
Tomas Odergren, MD, PhD and specialist in Neurology, joined the Board of Directors at the Annual General Meeting in June, and he brings an excellent and well-timed expertise in clinical development. Otto Skolling remains on the Board, while Paul de Potocki and Per Sjöberg resign.
“I am very pleased to hand over to a Chairman with such strong experience from industrial drug development and business” says Per Sjöberg. “Gunnar has an extensive international network and expertise in cardiovascular drug development, and both he and Tomas will be able to make great contributions to the next development phases in Athera.”
The company has recently moved their office to new premises at Business Center on Sankt Eriksgatan 117 in Stockholm, next to Hagastaden and the new Karolinska Hospital.
About Athera Biotechnologies AB
Athera has a unique and in-depth understanding of the immunological components in atherosclerosis, the inflammatory process leading to cardiovascular disease (CVD). The lead product candidate, the fully human antibody PC-mAb, is in late preclinical development. In addition, Athera has developed a biomarker and companion diagnostic CVDefine® kit. The biomarker, anti-PC, is linked to increased risk for cardiovascular disease and could in the future be used for identification of patients that benefit from Athera’s novel therapeutics. Future development costs for the antibody therapy will be co-financed by the EU FP7 program, in the project CARDIMMUN. Athera has an exclusive option agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim. Karolinska Development AB (publ) owns 65% of Athera Biotechnologies AB. For more information, please visit www.athera.se.
For further Information:
Carina Schmidt, Chief Executive Officer, Athera Biotechnologies AB
Tel: +46 76 193 81 90
E-mail: c.schmidt@athera.se