Emergex Strengthens Senior Management Team

PRESS RELEASE

Emergex Strengthens Senior Management Team

            Appointments of Mr Robin Cohen as Business Development Director and Ms Susi Osborne as Manufacturing Director

Abingdon, Oxon, UK, 23 February 2021 – Emergex Vaccines Holding Limited (‘Emergex’, or ‘the Company’), a company tackling major global infectious disease threats through the development of synthetic ‘set point’ vaccines which prime the T-Cell immune response, today announces the appointment of Mr Robin Cohen, as Business Development Director. The Company is also pleased to announce the appointment of Ms Susi Osborne as Manufacturing Director, who joined Emergex in January this year.

Today’s announcement follows the recent collaboration and development agreement with the Immunobiological Technology Institute (Bio-Manguinhos) of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) in Brazil to develop a COVID-19 vaccine using Emergex’s next generation synthetic T-Cell vaccine technology. These appointments will support this and future collaborations, providing additional business development, commercial and manufacturing expertise to advance the Company’s pipeline of vaccine candidates.

Mr Cohen joins Emergex from Janssen-Cilag, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, where, since 2017, he was working as part of the EMEA regional Business Development Team and also responsible for Business Development in the UK pharmaceutical business. He focussed on creating partnerships and strategic alliances to bring new assets into the organisation and enhance the capabilities of existing franchises. Prior to this role, Mr Cohen was the Commercial Lead for Infectious Diseases where he  was responsible for the launch of a number of new therapeutic treatments in the fields of Hepatitis C and HIV. Prior to this, he was successful in a number of senior leadership roles in both Sales and Marketing fields across multiple therapy areas.

Ms Osborne has a wealth of manufacturing knowledge, with over 25 years of experience within the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. She joins Emergex from ADC Biotechnology, which focuses on the development of antibody drug conjugates, where she was the Head of Manufacturing Operations since 2018. During her time in ADC Biotechnology, she played a crucial role in the development, design and build of a new GMP manufacturing site. Prior to ADC Biotechnology, Ms Osborne held senior positions at Ipsen, GSK and Novartis, overseeing key operational and manufacturing roles in addition to providing regulatory affairs advice. At Ipsen, Ms Osborne played a key role in the new facility build of a GMP manufacturing facility and the tech transfer of a product from a CMO. The facility was successfully licenced by the FDA in 2008.

Storme Moore-Thornicroft, co-founder and COO of Emergex commented: “We are delighted to have filled these two important roles as we look to accelerate development of our promising pipeline of novel, synthetic vaccine candidates. Robin is well placed to oversee discussions with current and potential partners interested in our vaccine programmes. The appointment of Susie Osborne as Manufacturing Director is timely and reflects the progress we are making with our vaccines and the need to ensure swift manufacturing capability is firmly in place to meet clinical trial demand.”

Robin Cohen, Business Development Director, commented: “Emergex is at the cutting edge of vaccine development and I am excited to be coming on board at a key time in the Company’s development. There is a pressing need globally for effective vaccines that are easy to administer, manufacture and store, criteria which Emergex’s technology is designed to meet. I am looking forward to working with the team at Emergex to advance vaccine candidates with the potential to prevent some of the world’s most deadly infectious diseases.”

Susi Osborne, Manufacturing Director, commented: “  The current pandemic has seen huge scientific advances in vaccine development. However, vaccine development is not without its challenges including how we manufacture such vaccines and protect against variants of the virus. Emergex is well placed to address many of these issues, its vaccines are both easy to manufacture and could deliver greater protection for longer against more variants. I welcome the opportunity to be part of the Emergex team, bringing to bear my extensive manufacturing experience as we look to expand our vaccine manufacturing capabilities and develop candidates that can meaningfully address current and future pandemics.”

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About Emergex

Emergex, a biotechnology company headquartered in Abingdon, UK, with an operating subsidiary in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, USA, is pioneering the development of synthetic ‘set point’ vaccines which prime the T-Cell immune response to address some of the world’s most immediate health threats such as COVID-19, Dengue Fever, Zika, Ebola, pandemic flu and serious intra-cellular bacterial infections.

These set-point vaccines modify the initial immune status of recipients in a way that ‘primes’ their immune systems to recognise subsequent infectious agents much like a natural infection would do, preventing an acute or severe manifestation of the disease.

Emergex combines validated technologies together with the very latest scientific insights in immunology and virology to develop its vaccines, including the use of synthetic peptide codes determined on actual infected cells and using a proprietary gold nanoparticle carrier system for programming.

The Company has a growing pipeline of vaccine candidates. The most advanced development programme is a vaccine for Dengue Fever, which may also be disease modifying for other Flaviviruses such as the Zika and Yellow Fever viruses. Emergex also has programmes in development for a universal Influenza vaccine and a universal Filovirus vaccine (including viruses such as Ebola and Marburg) and discovery programmes for a Yellow Fever Booster vaccine and a Chikungunya vaccine.

Emergex has partnered with the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) of Singapore to develop a vaccine for the emerging threat of Hand, Foot and Mouth (HFM) disease. The Company also has a collaboration in place with Brazil-based Bio-Manguinhos/Fiocruz for the development of several vaccine candidates, including a potential vaccine for COVID-19.

Find out more online at www.emergexvaccines.com.