Symphogen A/S Appoints Laurence Jay Korn to its Board of Directors

04-Jun-2004

Copenhagen. The Danish biotech company Symphogen A/S announced the appointment of Dr. Laurence Jay Korn, Ph.D. to its Board of Directors. Dr. Korn is a co-founder, Chairman of the Board and former Chief Executive Officer of Protein Design Labs, Inc.

"We are extremely pleased and fortunate to add someone with Dr. Laurence Korn's experience to our Board of Directors," said Kirsten Drejer, Ph.D., CEO of Symphogen. "Our ambition is to develop recombinant human polyclonal antibodies as novel therapeutics to treat human disease. With Dr. Korn on board we have strengthened significantly our ability to fulfill this ambition and he also brings a wealth of business specific knowledge to our board. At the same time, Laurence's decision to join our Board of Directors is a vote of confidence in our Company. We look forward very much to the application of his expertise to the progress of our Company as we continue to develop our products and business relations."

Dr. Korn co-founded Protein Design Labs in 1986; he served as Chief Executive Officer for 15 years, and is currently Chairman of the Board. With Laurence Korn helming Protein Design Labs, the company has achieved remarkable research and business results. Among other milestones, Dr. Laurence Korn brought the first humanized antibody-based pharmaceutical (Zenapax(R)) from early research to marketing. As CEO Dr. Laurence Korn also took PDL public on the NASDAQ stock exchange as well as negotiated major agreements with pharmaceutical companies in the U.S., Europe and Japan.

"I am very excited to join Symphogen at this stage in the Company's development," said Dr. Korn. "With a novel technology for the development of recombinant natural human polyclonal antibodies, Symphogen is well positioned to become a leader in this new class of therapeutic antibodies which may be effective in the treatment of disease. I look forward to the opportunity to work with the Company as it continues to advance its product candidates."

Symphogen A/S is a biotechnology company with a pioneering technology to produce target-specific recombinant human polyclonal antibodies, symphobodies, for the treatment or prevention of human disease. This new generation of Symphogen antibody drug candidates are identified and cloned using either the Symplex(TM) or the Symphage(TM) technologies. Symphobodies provide a totally new class of therapeutic antibodies, which 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.

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Topic world Antibodies

Antibodies are specialized molecules of our immune system that can specifically recognize and neutralize pathogens or foreign substances. Antibody research in biotech and pharma has recognized this natural defense potential and is working intensively to make it therapeutically useful. From monoclonal antibodies used against cancer or autoimmune diseases to antibody-drug conjugates that specifically transport drugs to disease cells - the possibilities are enormous

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Topic world Antibodies

Antibodies are specialized molecules of our immune system that can specifically recognize and neutralize pathogens or foreign substances. Antibody research in biotech and pharma has recognized this natural defense potential and is working intensively to make it therapeutically useful. From monoclonal antibodies used against cancer or autoimmune diseases to antibody-drug conjugates that specifically transport drugs to disease cells - the possibilities are enormous