Abzena PLC Appointment of Non-Executive Director (0907R)

TIDMABZA

RNS Number : 0907R

Abzena PLC

19 September 2017

Abzena plc

Abzena appoints Lotta Ljungqvist as Non-Executive Director

Cambridge, UK, 19 September 2017 - Abzena plc (AIM: ABZA, 'Abzena' or the 'Group'), a life sciences group providing services and technologies to enable development and manufacture of biopharmaceutical products, announces that Lotta Ljungqvist has today been appointed as a Non-Executive Director of the Company.

Lotta Ljungqvist has a broad range of commercial and directorial experience. She currently holds a dual role as President and CEO of GE Nordics, responsible for GE's growth in all sectors across the region. She is also CEO of BioProcess Innovation Hub, a government initiative, where she has been setting up a new facility aiming to support biotechnology companies in Scandinavia.

Before taking on the dual role at GE Nordics she spent eight years with GE Healthcare Life Sciences as its Global Head of R&D BioProcess. During this time, the division doubled in size due to a series of acquisitions.

Prior to this, Lotta was CEO of a start-up Biotech, IMED AB, based on research from the Karolinska Institute. She also worked at Biovitrum AB for six years, as SVP, Biopharmaceutical Process Development, selling cell culture, purification and analytical services to the biopharmaceutical sector.

Lotta has held several board positions including her current position as Non-Executive Director on the board of Atlas Antibodies, a privately held manufacturer and distributor of research antibodies and as Board Director of Vinnova, the Swedish government agency that administers state funding for research and development.

Dr Ken Cunningham, Abzena's Chairman, said:

"Lotta has a deep understanding of biomanufacturing and development services, and how to support the needs of biopharmaceutical companies. As a result of her strategic and operational capability, to manage a contract development and manufacturing service business, she will be an invaluable asset to Abzena, as it aims to deliver value-adding services and technology solutions to its customers."

 
 Full name:               Ingrid Charlotta ("Lotta") Ljungqvist 
-----------------------  ---------------------------------------- 
 Age:                     56 years old 
-----------------------  ---------------------------------------- 
 Current directorships:   International General Electric 
                           Aktiebolag 
                           North Pole Holdings AB 
                           GECAS Sverige Aircraft Leasing 
                           Worldwide AB 
                           GE Renewable Sweden AB 
                           GE Energy (Sweden) AB 
                           GE Power Sweden AB 
                           GE Grid Solutions AB 
                           GE Healthcare Sverige AB 
                           GEMS PET Systems Aktiebolag 
                           GE Healthcare Aktiebolag 
                           GE Healthcare Life Sciences Innovation 
                           Center AB 
                           GE Energy (Norway) AS 
                           GE Healthcare AS 
                           GE Healthcare AB 
                           Atlas Antibodies AB 
                           4L Bioconsulting AB 
                           Antonov Thelander i Gimle Consulting 
                           Aktiebolag 
                           GE Global Holdings Denmark ApS 
-----------------------  ---------------------------------------- 
 Directorships            GE BioProcess R&D AB 
  in the last 
  five years: 
-----------------------  ---------------------------------------- 
 Current shareholding     Nil 
  in the Company: 
-----------------------  ---------------------------------------- 
 

Save as set out in this announcement, there are no further matters to be disclosed under paragraph (g) of Schedule 2 of the AIM Rules for Companies.

-Ends-

Enquiries:

 
Abzena plc 
 John Burt, Chief Executive 
 Officer Julian Smith, Chief 
 Financial Officer             [phone] 
Numis (Nominated Adviser and 
 Broker) 
 Clare Terlouw / James Black   [phone] 
 / Paul Gillam                  1000 
N+1 Singer (Joint Broker)      [phone] 
 Aubrey Powell / Liz Yong       3000 
Instinctif Partners            [phone] 
 Melanie Toyne Sewell / Alex    2020 
 Shaw / Deborah Bell            [e-mail] 
 

Notes to Editors

About Abzena

Abzena (AIM: ABZA) provides proprietary technologies and complementary services to enable the development and manufacture of biopharmaceutical products.

The term 'ABZENA Inside' is used by Abzena to describe products that have been created using its proprietary technologies and are being developed by its partners, and include Composite Human Antibodies(TM) and ThioBridge(TM) Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs). Abzena has the potential to earn future licence fees, milestone payments and/or royalties on 'ABZENA Inside' products.

Abzena offers the following services and technologies across its principal sites in Cambridge (UK), San Diego, California (USA) and Bristol, Pennsylvania (USA):

   -- Immunology research studies, including immunogenicity assessment of candidate biopharmaceutical products; 
 
   -- Protein engineering to create humanized antibodies and deimmunised therapeutic proteins; 
 
   -- Cell line development for the manufacture of recombinant proteins and antibodies; 
 
   -- Contract process development and GMP manufacture of biopharmaceuticals, including monoclonal antibodies and 
      recombinant proteins for preclinical and clinical studies; 
 
   -- Contract synthetic chemistry and bioconjugation research services, focused on antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs); 
 
   -- Proprietary site-specific conjugation technologies and novel payloads for ADC development; and 
 
   -- GMP manufacturer of ADC linkers, payloads & combined linker-payloads. 

For more information, please see www.abzena.com

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END

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September 19, 2017 02:01 ET (06:01 GMT)