Aptahem strengthens the company´s scientific advisory board with internationally recognised and highly qualified experts in advancement of clinical studies

Aptahem is today pleased to announce the recruitment to the company´s scientific advisory board of Hans Peter Schwarz and Mats Eriksson; two highly experienced and internationally recognised experts. Professor Hans Peter Schwarz, MD has previously held leading positions within the pharmaceutical industry, where he has served as a board member at Baxter AG, as a member of the Baxter/Baxalta management team and most recently, as a board member at Baxalta/Shire. Associate Professor Mats Eriksson was previously a senior physician at the Anesthesia & Intensive care unit at Uppsala University Hospital. He is a sought after advisor to the pharmaceutical industry and a highly appreciated keynote speaker at international conferences. Professor Schwarz and Associate Professor Eriksson will assume their roles as Senior Advisors in the Aptahem Scientific Council where their expertise in sepsis, coagulation, critical care and industrial drug development, will contribute to the company’s upcoming clinical programs and partnership development.

During the autumn months, alongside Aptahem´s preclinical development, the company has been working towards strengthening Aptahem´s clinical and business capabilities, through the identification and recruitment of world-leading experts to the company’s scientific council. This project has resulted in the successful recruitment of two internationally recognized and highly qualified experts, Hans Peter Schwarz and Mats Eriksson.

The first of the company’s newly recruited Senior Advisors is Professor and MD Hans Peter Schwarz who has extensive experience in bringing promising preclinical candidates through the clinical development process all the way to market approval, for indications such as haemophilia, thrombosis, immunology, and neurology. He has also participated in several successful market approvals and introductions including the candidate drugs; ADYNOVATE, CUVITRU and HyQvia. Professor Schwarz has also had a very long research career which has resulted in more than 75 approved patent applications, 360 scientific abstracts as well as over 230 peer-reviewed scientific publications.

He has previously held leading positions in industry; as Vice President of Clinical Development in Immunology at the pharmaceutical company Baxter/Baxalta. In this role, he participated in the process of developing the candidate drug, VONVENDI, which was the first recombinant treatment for adults affected by Von Willebrand´s disease.

Prior to this, he was vice president of the bio therapeutics department at Baxter Bioscience, where he had global responsibility for the management of over 200 specialists operating at four locations worldwide, with a budget exceeding $100 million. Complimenting his qualified clinical and business background, he has also headed up a number of FDA Advisory Committees, where the remit was to support the American administration in their drug evaluations.

Professor Schwartz comments “Aptahem´s drug candidate Apta-1 is based on an intriguing concept derived from protozoan pathophysiological activity, which is protected by patents and provides a new and innovative concept for addressing a huge unmet clinical need”.

“Professor Schwarz is an industrial giant like no other, and has very convincingly brought a number of promising candidates through the clinical process right through to market approval. His regulatory experience and considerable business network come at exactly the right time in Aptahem´s development. In my opinion, the fact that Professor Schwarz has become interested in Apta-1 and its mechanism of action speaks loudly for the candidate’s potential”, says Mikael Lindstam, CEO of Aptahem.

The second of the company´s newly recruited Senior Advisors is Associate Professor Mats Eriksson, who has a long and well-established career in research and teaching in areas including sepsis, inflammation and coagulation. His research has resulted in more than 60 peer reviewed articles and over 70 additional relevant scientific publications. Associate Professor Eriksson also held the position of Vice President of Research & Clinical Development, and Medical Chief at Orexo AB, and was responsible for the company´s Phase I and Phase II clinical trials. In his role as Global Medical Monitor, he was also be involved in the start-up phases of a worldwide Phase III clinical trial. In his medical profession, Associate Professor Eriksson has been an anesthetic and intensive care physician for 20 years, 15 years of which have been as a consultant physician or head of the clinic. He has been active in the Swedish Medicines Agency’s Expert Committee, where together with other specialists, he has developed new guidelines for treatment with anticoagulants. Associate Professor Eriksson is also a highly renowned speaker at international conferences.

Associate Professor Ericsson comments: “Sepsis, which is also known as “blood poisoning”, is one of the most common causes of death in the global perspective, and is therefore an extremely important field of research. Because there is no specific treatment for sepsis, Aptahem has the potential to achieve a unique breakthrough in the treatment of sepsis. Aptahem´s studies have shown positive and interesting results and I look forward to participating in the collaboration around the company’s therapeutic arsenal and the possibility it gives to save lives in the future”.

“Associate Professor Eriksson combines exceptional clinical experience with a unique insight into the challenges associated with treatment of patients in our field of therapy. He has a very qualified background both in clinical work and in research. This combined with his experience as an adviser in the pharmaceutical industry, brings a valuable set of skills to Aptahem, as the company starts to gear up to bring the drug candidate Apta-1 into clinic trials in humans”, says Mikael Lindstam, CEO of Aptahem.

Aptahem and the Scientific Council would also like to take this opportunity to thank Associate Professor Bengt-Åke Henriksson, who regrettably is obliged to resign from his commitment for personal reasons. We thank him for his valuable input into the design of the animal studies as well as for his advice in the development of the clinic.

For further information:
Mikael Lindstam, CEO, Aptahem AB
Tel: + 46 (0)766-33 36 99
E-mail: ml@aptahem.com

About Aptahem
Aptahem AB (APTA) is a biotechnology company that develops aptamer-based pharmaceuticals for the treatment of life-threatening conditions in which a combination of coagulation and inflammation are involved. The company’s primary pharmaceutical candidate, Apta-1, is being developed with the aim of preventing the high mortality rate caused by organ and tissue damage in sepsis patients, among others. The company possesses patent protection in strategic target markets and actively seeks business development opportunities with potential collaborators.