Haemostatix appoints new Chairman following recent investment

20th June 2008 - Haemostatix Ltd appointed Dr Robert Burns as its new non-executive Chairman. Prior to joining the Haemostatix board, Robert was CEO at Celldex Therapeutics Inc, a New Jersey based developer of cancer vaccines. Under his leadership, Celldex merged with NASDAQ listed AVANT Imunotherapeutics Inc, providing an attractive route forward for investors. Prior to this, Robert led technology licensing at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in New York including transactions which resulted in the formation of Piramed (UK), Lymphatix (Finland) and Recepta (Brazil) based on Ludwig intellectual property. Robert served on the Piramed board before its acquisition by Roche and on the Lymphatix board before its acquisition by Ark Therapeutics. He has also held senior executive positions at Oxford Glycosciences (UK), British Biotech (UK) and AbT (US).

Investors back development of synthetic platelet substitute

22nd April 2008 - Haemostatix Ltd, a drug development company based at Nottingham’s BioCity and originally a spin-out from Leicester University, announced today that it has received a further £1.24 million from its existing investors (Spark Ventures, Catapult and NESTA). Haemostatix also announced the appointment of a new chief executive and a new independent non-executive director. The investment will enable Haemostatix to progress development of HaemoPlax^TM, a synthetic platelet substitute designed to replace platelets currently obtained from blood donation. Donor platelets, given by transfusion, assist in blood clotting and are currently used to treat cancer and surgical patients at risk from severe bleeding.

Dr Jonathan Gee, investment director at Spark Ventures commented that HaemoPlax^TM had shown very promising results in preliminary pre-clinical trials and that the Company was on track to take HaemoPlax^TM into clinical trials.

The new chief executive is Dr Ben Nichols. Ben brings many years of experience in the commercialization and licensing of new technologies and products in the bio-pharma industry. He has held senior commercial and general management positions in the industry. Ben’s previous post was Business Development Director for Sheffield University spin-out, Plasso Technology Ltd, where he helped the company to realize a trade sale exit.

Sarah Middleton, former CEO and co-founder of Haemostatix will become chief technical officer. Sarah, who was one of the inventors of HaemoPlax^TM, has over 30 years experience in product development in the field of haemostasis.

The new independent non-executive director, Dr. Grahaem Brown, trained as a physician and specialist in Internal Medicine. He has held senior development positions in Glaxo, Novartis, Pharmacia and UCB/Celltech, covering twenty years experience of driving global drug development from discovery through development to product launch. During this time he has played a significant part in the development of some 20 new products.

Ben Nichols commented that “There is a real clinical need for a platelet substitute as donor platelets are expensive to produce, have a very short shelf life, and need to be screened to reduce the risk of transmission of blood-borne viruses that cause Hepatitis and HIV. There is also a strong demand for new products from the pharmaceutical industry itself, with major players seeking to in-license new drugs to bolster their pipelines. In this respect the strategy at Haemostatix is clear: our role is to innovate and demonstrate proof of principle, then out-license to major pharmaceutical companies who will complete clinical development. It is a well proven, value-adding strategy,” he added.

NESTA CEO, Jonathan Kestenbaum, added: “Haemostatix is a dynamic young company driving forward an innovative product that promises to change lives. We are excited to follow our original funding and look forward to working with them as the business continues to develop.”

For further information please contact:

Jonathan Gee, SPARK Ventures:
+44 (0)20 7851 7777

Annabel O’Connor for SPARK Ventures:
+44 (0)20 7307 5339

Nicola Kane, NESTA:
+44 (0)20 7438 2608

Jonathan Earl, Catapult Venture Managers:
+44 (0)870 116 1600

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