Fusion Antibodies plc

("Fusion" or the "Company")

Appointment of Chief Executive Officer

Fusion Antibodies plc (AIM: FAB), specialists in pre-clinical antibody discovery, engineering and supply for both therapeutic drug and diagnostic applications, announces the appointment of Dr Adrian Kinkaid as Chief Executive Officer ("CEO"), effective from Monday 15 August 2022. Adrian's appointment follows an extensive formal search process further to the Company's announcement on 14 March 2022.  

Adrian Kinkaid is an experienced life sciences executive with 25 years' experience in life science and biotherapeutics industries.  He joins Fusion from Vortex Liquid Biopsy Solutions Ltd and Vortex Biosciences Inc. (together "Vortex"), a biotech group focused on world class technology for the isolation of high quality circulating tumour cells.  As CEO of Vortex, Adrian led the company's development, including management of its business units.

Prior to joining Vortex, Adrian worked as CEO at several antibody-based diagnostics companies including BioFab Ltd, and Lumabs BV.  He was formerly the Chief Commercial Officer for Promexus Ltd, a protein biotherapeutics company where he developed the corporate strategy for Therapeutic Affimers, culminating in a multi-target deal with a potential of over $1bn.  Adrian was previously Chief Business Officer of the Aptamer Group, and Strategic Market Development Leader for Abcam plc, the leading provider of research antibodies. 

Adrian has a PhD in Biochemistry and undertook postdoctoral research with the Institute of Cancer Research, London.  As Chairman and founding member of the European Laboratory Research and Innovation Group, Adrian established their flagship Drug Discovery event, which is now the leading conference of its kind in Europe.

Simon Douglas, Chairman of Fusion Antibodies, commented: "I would like to welcome Adrian who joins Fusion at an exciting time as we focus on growing our antibody services and completing the development of and commercial roll out next year of OptiMAL, our Mammalian Antibody library."

Adrian Kinkaid said: "I am delighted to be joining Fusion Antibodies at this exciting time of growth and look forward to leading the Company to further commercial success.  Fusion Antibodies has a world class technology platform built over the last decade that has the potential to generate significant value and play a global role in the provision of high quality services to enhance the discovery and development of novel, effective antibody therapeutics."

Enquiries:

The following disclosures are made in accordance with the AIM Rules for Companies:

Adrian Robert Kinkaid, aged 55, is or has been a director or partner of the following companies and partnerships in the past five years:

Current directorships/partnerships: 

Scorpio Bioscience Ltd

Directorships and partnerships held within the last five years:

BioFab Ltd

MIP Diagnostics Ltd

Lumabs BV

Dr Kinkaid does not hold any ordinary shares in the Company

Save for the information set out above, there are no further disclosures to be made in accordance with Rule 17, Schedule 2(g) of the AIM Rules for Companies in respect of the appointment of Dr Kinkaid.

About Fusion Antibodies plc

Fusion is a Belfast-based Collaborative Research Organisation ("CRO") company, listed on AIM, providing a range of antibody engineering services for the development of antibodies for both therapeutic drug and diagnostic applications.

Fusion provides a broad range of services in antibody generation, development, characterisation, optimisation, and small-scale production. These services include antigen expression, purification and sequencing, antibody humanisation using Fusion's proprietary CDRx^TM platform and cell line development, producing antibody generating stable cell lines optimised for use downstream by the customer to produce material for clinical trials. Since 2012, the Company has successfully sequenced and expressed over 250 antibodies and successfully completed over 200 humanisation projects for its international customer base, which has included eight of the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies by revenue.

At every stage, our client's vision is central to how we work in combining the latest technological advances with cutting edge science. In this work our world-class humanization and antibody optimization platforms harness the power of natural somatic hypermutation (SHM) to ensure the best molecule goes to the clinic. Fusion Antibodies' growth strategy is based on enabling Pharma and Biotech companies get to the clinic more effectively, using molecules with optimized therapeutic profile and enhanced potential for successful development and approval and, ultimately, on speeding up the drug discovery and development process. Fusion's use of SHM to create a fully human antibody library to capture the human antibody repertoire will address a continuing market need in antibody discovery,

Fusion Antibodies' emphasis on antibody therapeutics is based on the size and growth rate in the sector, with the market valued at $135.4 billion in 2018 and forecast to surpass $300 billion by 2025, a CAGR of 14.26%. As of May 2021, there were 100 approved antibody therapies on the market and more than 570 antibody therapies in clinical development.