BerGenBio, an emerging oncology biopharma, today announced the appointment of Dr. Barrie Ward to its Board of Directors. Dr. Ward has had a long and successful career in both academia and industry. Highlights include leading GSK’s Microbiology Division (1984-1994) and negotiating the $210 million sale of KuDOS to Astra Zeneca in 2006. He is currently the chairman of CellCentric and also a board member of Spirogen, Pharming NV and Cancer Research Technology Ltd. Following the recent successful Series A $8.8 million fundraising in April, Dr. Ward’s appointment represents a further strengthening of the company as it remains on track to commence Phase I trials of lead candidate BGB324, a first in class AXL inhibitor within the next few months.
Richard Godfrey, BerGenBio’s CEO, welcomed Dr. Ward’s appointment: “As BGB324 prepares to enter the clinic and we start to refine our pipeline, collaboration and eventual commercialization strategies, Barrie’s experience and network of contacts will be invaluable.”
Dr. Ward added: ” I am excited to have the opportunity to work BerGenBio to develop their lead compound as a first in class molecule in an important field treatment of cancer In addition I can also see excellent commercialisation opportunities and the possibility to build an attractive pipeline for investors over the next few years.”
Notes to editors
BerGenBio AS is a biopharmaceutical company located in Bergen, Norway. The company is committed to developing first in class therapeutics inhibiting EMT and the formation of cancer stem cells and preventing or reversing mechanisms of drug resistance. BerGenBio has a deep understanding of Cancer biology and in particular the tumor micro-environment, biomarkers and novel cancer treatments. The company is founded on proprietary platform technology called CellSelect™, which uses information from RNAi screening studies to identify and validate novel drug targets and biomarkers.
Contact:
Richard Godfrey, CEO
E-mail: richard.godfrey@bergenbio.com
