Experienced Venture Capitalist/Pharma Manager Joins Apeiron`s Business Development Team

Vienna (Austria), 10 January 2011 - APEIRON Biologics AG (Apeiron) today announced that Patrick Burgermeister, a seasoned venture capital and pharma manager will play a leading role in the company's business development activities. He will be engaged in identification and evaluation of new projects, in-licensing/out-licensing activities, portfolio assessment and sourcing new financing opportunities. Patrick Burgermeister has a dual background in business administration and molecular biology and brings in extensive industry experience from the areas of biotech, pharma, medtech, banking and venture capital.

Commenting on the appointment of Mr. Burgermeister, Hans Loibner, CEO of Apeiron, stated: "As one of the consequences of our major licensing deal with GSK in early 2011 Apeiron presently enlarges both its portfolio and its manpower. Having Patrick on board is a valuable asset for our expanding company. Patrick's knowledge, his skills as well as his wide network of contacts throughout the industry will make a significant contribution to the continuation of Apeiron's success."

Patrick Burgermeister added: "I have been following Apeiron's development and recent success closely and was always intrigued by their projects and abilities. I am excited to work with of one of the most promising biotech companies in Europe."

About Patrick Burgermeister:
Patrick Burgermeister has a dual background in business administration (University of St. Gallen, Switzerland) and molecular biology (Biocentre, Basel, Switzerland). Before working with Apeiron he sourced deals and lead numerous scientific and financial due diligences of (mostly) early-stage European biotech and medtech companies at the venture capital group BioMedPartners (funds over CHF 250 mio). For two years, he was CFO of one portfolio company and board representative of an other. Before that Patrick Burgermeister served as Senior Portfolio Manager at Novartis where he was responsible for the evaluation and strategic ranking of development projects. He acted as interface to the finance department and improved the NPV valuation methodology.
His industrial career started as strategic planner for the medtech company Jomed. Subsequently, he became Senior Financial Analyst at Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB) where he was responsible for pharma research and built up biotech research. He also advised their health care fund (size approx. CHF 1 bio).

About Apeiron:
Apeiron Biologics AG is a privately financed Biotech company based in Vienna. In January 2010, the then lead product APN01 (recombinant human Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2, rhACE2), an enzyme-based biotherapeutic for treatment of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) and a series of other diseases, was licensed out to GSK in a milestone-based agreement for approx. EUR 236 million. Currently, building on an existing set of innovative in-house projects, Apeiron is expanding its portfolio with clinical projects up to Phase II with a focus on biologic / immunologic therapy of cancer. In November 2010 the company concluded its first in-licensing deal: Recombinant human Superoxide Dismutase (SOD), a naturally occurring enzyme with important antioxidant properties.

Contact Apeiron:
Hans Loibner, Ph.D.,
CEO
APEIRON Biologics AG
Campus-Vienna-Biocenter 5
1030 Vienna, Austria
T +43 / 1 / 865 6577 100
E hans.loibner@apeiron-biologics.com
W www.apeiron-biologics.com

Copy Editing & Distribution:
PR&D - Public Relations for Research & Education
Mariannengasse 8
1090 Vienna
Austria
T +43 / 1 / 505 70 44
E contact@prd.at
W www.prd.at

This release was published on openPR.