ExpreS2ion appoints Bent U. Frandsen as Chief Executive Officer
ExpreS2ion Biotech Holding AB (“ExpreS2ion”) today announces that the Company’s Board of Directors has appointed Bent U. Frandsen as the new Chief Executive Officer of ExpreS2ion, succeeding Steen Klysner as of today 20 December, 2019. Bent has been with ExpreS2ion since March 2016 and has served as the Company’s Chief Business Officer since August 2018.
ExpreS2ion Biotech Holding AB (“ExpreS2ion”) today announces that the Company’s Board of Directors has appointed Bent U. Frandsen as the new Chief Executive Officer of ExpreS2ion, succeeding Steen Klysner as of today 20 December, 2019. Bent has been with ExpreS2ion since March 2016 and has served as the Company’s Chief Business Officer since August 2018.
ExpreS2ion is currently entering into a more commercial phase from its current R&D focus and also aims to create a clinical pipeline with in-licensed assets. Bent is a highly experienced, commercially oriented executive with more than 25 years of global commercial experience, primarily from the biopharmaceuticals industry. Prior to Bent’s tenure with ExpreS2ion, he has served as Director, Corporate Business Development, in CMC Biologics (today AGC Biologics). Bent has also worked for Coloplast, ALK-Abelló and Lundbeck in senior, international roles. Bent obtained in 1993 his Master of Science in Finance and Strategic Management from Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. He has worked closely with the ExpreS2ion R&D team on several licensing and sales opportunities and possesses deep insight in the technical aspects of ExpreS2ion’s business.
Martin Roland, Chairman of the Board of ExpreS2ion says: “I am very pleased to appoint Bent as our new Chief Executive Officer. He has proven leadership skills and enjoys a very high degree of respect within the organisation. Bent has valuable insight in the market dynamics and the various needs of ExpreS2ion’s customers and he has the ability to bring forward the best within the internal organisation. We believe that these are the right skills to bring ExpreS2ion to the next stage in its development. The Board looks forward to working with Bent in his new role and to help the Company in its transformation into a more customer oriented and pipeline driven organisation”.
Bent U. Frandsen comments: “I am thankful to the Board for allowing me to take the helm of the daily operations at ExpreS2ion and look forward to support the entire organisation at this exciting time. We will remain an entrepreneurial and vigilant company, also in the future where we will devote even more attention to our commercial activities. We have a great potential built on strong science and an ambitious team and we will continue to grow the company and deliver on our mission to provide superior, high quality and cost-efficient biologics with focus on vaccines, immunotherapy and diagnostics. I look very much forward to also work with shareholders as part of my new role.”
Steen Klysner has served as ExpreS2ion’s CEO since April 1, 2016 and has successfully helped the Company raise funds and develop the proprietary recombinant protein production system, ExpreS2, including the most recent announcement of ExpreS2ion’s launch of the first unique S2 cell line for enhanced efficacy of vaccines and immunotherapy, and has also been pivotal in the creation of the Company’s joint venture AdaptVac with NextGen Vaccines, incorporating a unique Virus-like Particle (VLP) technology that was spun out of the University of Copenhagen.
"Steen Klysner has been instrumental in successfully building and developing ExpreS2ion from an early-stage R&D company to now a commercial stage company with assets that can be built both internally and with partners. The Company is very well positioned to deliver on its strategy to provide new vaccine products especially in proteins that are currently difficult to express. On behalf of the entire Board I would like to thank Steen for his dedication to the Company and for his invaluable contribution to ExpreS2ion’s success and wish him all the best in the future,” says Martin Roland.
Steen Klysner says: “I am very pleased with ExpreS2ion’s journey. We have translated a novel protein expression system into an asset that is highly valued by the global vaccine development companies and additionally taken the first steps to create proprietary projects that can be moved forward in clinical development within a short time frame. I feel that the Company has now matured to a level where it is time to leave the management to more business oriented competences and move on to new challenges”.
For additional information, please contact
ExpreS2ion Biotech Holding AB
Bent U. Frandsen, CEO +45 4256 6869
Martin Roland, Chairman of the Board +45 2637 3380
Certified Adviser
Svensk Kapitalmarknadsgranskning AB
Telephone: +46 70 755 95 51
E-mail: ca@skmg.se
This press release contains information that ExpreS2ion is obligated to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication through the agency of the contact person set out above on December 20, 2019.
About ExpreS2ion
ExpreS2ion Biotechnologies ApS is a fully owned Danish subsidiary of ExpreS2ion Biotech Holding AB with company register number 559033-3729. The subsidiary has developed a unique proprietary platform technology, ExpreS2, for fast and efficient preclinical and clinical development as well as robust production of complex proteins for new vaccines and diagnostics. Since the Company was founded in 2010, it has produced more than 300 proteins and 40 virus-like particles (VLPs) in collaboration with leading research institutions and companies, demonstrating superior efficiency and success rates. In addition, ExpreS2ion develops novel VLP based vaccines through the joint venture AdaptVac ApS, which was founded in 2017. For additional information, please visit www.expres2ionbio.com and www.adaptvac.com.