Changes to Biohit Oyj’s management

Biohit Oyj  Stock exchange release      17.4.2012     11.00 am

Panu Hendolin, PhD (molecular medicine), born in 1971, was appointed Head of Research and Development at Biohit Oyj as of 17 April 2012. Hendolin worked at Biohit as Research Manager and Head of Research and Development from 2007 to 2008. Previously, Hendolin worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the A. I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences at the University of Eastern Finland, in several product development and managerial positions at Jurilab Oy Ltd and for the last three and a half years as the Technical Manager responsible for product development at Danaher Corporation’s Innotrac Diagnostics. 

Lea Paloheimo, PhD (clinical biochemistry), born in 1951, was appointed Head of Development at Biohit Oyj as of 17 April 2012. Paloheimo has worked at Biohit since 2001. Before her career at Biohit, Paloheimo worked as a Chemist at Huslab, Sales Manager at Dasico A/S in Denmark, Researcher at Orion Diagnostica (Orion Corporation) and as a Chemist at the Clinical Chemistry department of United Laboratories Ltd. She carried out her PhD and postdoctoral research at the University of Copenhagen.

 Irene Hernberg, BA (English Language)(b. 1973) has been appointed Communications Manager at Biohit Oyj as of 2 May 2012. Previously, Hernberg has worked at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland in various communications-related tasks since 2002 and as Communications Manager in 2009-2012. Before working at VTT, Hernberg worked at AAC Global Oy as Project Manager and Content Provider.

Semi Korpela, M.Sc. (Econ.)
CEO, Biohit Group
Tel.: +358 9 773 861
Mobile: +358 40 573 7701
semi.korpela@biohit.fi
BIOHIT HealthCare
Innovating for Health
Cancer Prevention

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About Biohit

Biohit Oyj is a globally operating Finnish biotechnology company established in 1988. Biohit's mission crystallizes in its motto “Innovating for Health”. The company assumes social responsibility by producing innovations, new technologies and analysis systems for use in medicine, research institutions and industry. These products help to promote research and diagnostics, while improving quality of life by preventing disease, human suffering and financial loss. Biohit also seeks to innovate and develop the marketing and availability of its products and services.

Biohit works with scientific communities to produce new technologies, products and services based on research results and innovations. These can be used to develop safe and cost-effective diagnostic tests for the early detection and prevention of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. (www.biohithealthcare.com / International / State of the art GastroPanel and Acetium innovations for the unmet need).

In January 2012, sixteen world-leading gastroenterology specialists from eleven countries proposed in their SJG publication the use of the biomarkers of the modern GastroPanel test for safe and cost-efficient primary diagnosis and screening of Helicobacter infection and atrophic gastritis in patients with stomach discomfort and in asymptomatic patients, as it is neither safe nor cost-efficient to use the 13C urea breath test for this purpose. In addition, the authors of the publication state that acetaldehyde generated in an achlorhydric stomach (a consequence of atrophic gastritis) is a significant reason for an increased gastric and oesophageal cancer risk.  Acetium capsules can reduce the amount of cancer-causing acetaldehyde generated in the stomach – and thus, very likely, they also reduce the cancer risk (SJG: “GastroPanel biomarkers: Rationale in diagnosis and screening of atrophic gastritis with stomach-specific plasma biomarkers”, Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology. 2012; 47: 136–147).

Biohit's products include analysis systems for the prevention and early diagnosis of gastrointestinal diseases, such as the blood-sample based GastroPanel examinations for the diagnosis of stomach illnesses and associated risks, quick tests for the diagnosis of lactose intolerance and H. pylori infection in connection with gastroscopy, and the ColonView examination for the early detection of intestinal bleeding that indicates a risk of colorectal cancer. Acetium reduces the amount of carcinogenic acetaldehyde in an anacidic stomach. (www.acetium.com/test - reveals acetaldehyde exposure)

The population is aging and, therefore, the need for safe and cost-efficient diagnosis and prevention of diseases is strongly increasing. People are becoming more aware of acetaldehyde and the cancer risks associated with it. This is expected to substantially increase the interest in the company's products and services.

Biohit is headquartered in Helsinki and has a subsidiary in the United Kingdom. Since 1999, Biohit’s Series B share (BIOBV) has been quoted on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki in the Small cap/Healthcare group (www.biohithealthcare.com/Investors).
Read more at www.biohithealthcare.com