Pepscan Therapeutics Strengthens Management Team

LELYSTAD, The Netherlands, January 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Pepscan Therapeutics, the Netherlands based biotechnology firm focusing on protein mimicking technology for the generation of immune therapeutics, today named Peter Timmerman, PhD as Chief Technology Officer and Klaus Schwamborn, PhD as Chief Development Officer. These new positions were created after the retirement of its CSO and one of the company founders, Prof. Dr. Rob Meloen.

"Pepscan has recently refocused its R&D program on the application of its proprietary CLIPSTM protein mimicry technology for the generation of monoclonal antibodies and therapeutic peptides"' said Wim Mol, CEO of the company. "This new focus requires a strengthened presence of both technology and biological development in the management team."

Peter Timmerman is inventor of the CLIPSTM technology and as Head of Chemistry drove the advances in protein mimicking for therapeutic antibodies and peptides at Pepscan. He also holds a chair as Professor in Protein Mimetic Chemistry at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). Timmerman studied in Amsterdam, and obtained his PhD summa cum laude from the University of Twente. In 1995, he was recipient of the Backer prize for the best thesis in Organic Chemistry. Before joining Pepscan he did research at the ETH in Zurich, and was Assistant Professor in Supramolecular Chemistry and Technology at the University of Twente. He is co-author of over 80 scientific articles.

Klaus Schwamborn oversees the entire biology required for the pre-clinical development of therapeutic antibodies and peptides. Before joining Pepscan, he was with Celgene, San Diego USA, in target discovery and developed assays for small molecules in the field of cancer and inflammation. Schwamborn holds a PhD in molecular biology from the University of Gottingen, Germany and completed postdoctoral studies at the Institute Pasteur in Paris, France where he mainly focused on cell signaling and post-translational protein modification. He published in high-impact journals and has in total over 15 year hands-on experience in molecular and cellular biology.

"We are very pleased that Peter Timmerman and Klaus Schwamborn join the management team of Pepscan as successors to Rob Meloen. We thank Rob for the invaluable contributions he made to the development of Pepscan. Without his scientific ingenuity Pepscan would not have been where it is today. We are very pleased that Rob will continue to provide support to Pepscan as a scientific adviser", Mol said.

Notes to the editor:

About Pepscan

Pepscan Holding NV is a privately owned company based in Lelystad, the Netherlands. The company focuses on protein mimicking technology for the generation of immune therapeutics. It has developed a pipeline of therapeutic vaccine and antibody programs, of which the most advanced is in Phase II clinical testing. Pepscans proprietary CLIPSTM technology has been proven to yield functional antibodies reactive with a range of complex proteins, including GPCRs. For more information visit http://www.pepscan.com.

About CLIPSTM technology

CLIPSTM (Chemical LInkage of Peptides onto Scaffolds) is a technology to present one or more peptides in a structurally constrained configuration. These molecules behave as functional mimics of complex protein domains and hitherto have been used in antibody and vaccine programs to create superior immunogens in the induction and selection of antibodies against disease relevant protein targets. This is especially valuable in the case of proteins that are inaccessible as recombinant proteins (e.g. GPCRs, ion channels, patented proteins).

SOURCE Pepscan Holding N.V.