ValiRx Plc
("ValiRx" or the "Company")
FORMATION OF & APPOINTMENTS TO AN ADVISORY BOARD
London, UK., 22 June 2017: ValiRx Plc (AIM: VAL), the clinical stage biotechnology company, is pleased to announce the formation of an Advisory Board ("AB") and that the following individuals have agreed to join it and to offer ValiRx the benefit of their experience, spanning venture capital, life science and finance.
ValiRx's newly formed Advisory Board has been created to provide strategic guidance and technical advice to the Company's main board. AB members will be responsible for monitoring sector developments and licensing opportunities in the life-science space, as well as supporting ValiRx in accessing partnering opportunities via members' extensive network of contacts.
Seppo Mäkinen
Seppo Mäkinen, previously a ValiRx Non-Executive Director, has more than 30 years of senior advisory and executive experience in board level strategic leadership and venture capital management on life science. His career includes ten years as director in Life Sciences at Sitra (Finnish Government Fund), followed by 13 years as co-founder and Managing Partner in Bio Fund Management Oy. In 2010, Seppo founded Taikon Advisor Oy, a Finnish management consultancy firm focusing on advising and investing in life sciences ventures. He stepped down from the ValiRx Board in May 2017.
Dr Ajay Agrawal
Dr Ajay K Agrawal is currently the Chief Business Officer at ValiRx. He is an experienced entrepreneur in the biotech and pharma industry, who currently sits on the boards of companies in the UK, Europe and USA, assisting them in shaping their aims, values, and strategic goals. He also sits on the editorial board of six peer-reviewed international scientific journals from Bentham Press, California, USA, and he is the Managing Director Europe and Advisory Board Member of Ignite Capital Partners, USA and a trustee of the Ramphal Institute, London. Previously, Ajay was a founder of polyMASC Pharmaceuticals plc, London, the first UK biotech company from a university (Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, University of London) that was directly listed on the London Stock Exchange, raising approximately $40 million in 1995, before its subsequent merger with the NASDAQ-listed company, Valentis Inc in 1999. He was a Board Director and member of the remuneration & audit committees of Immupharma plc, the AIM-listed pharmaceutical development company for over eight years.
Andrew King
Andrew King has almost twenty years' experience working in the biotech and life-science sectors. He served for nearly ten years as Finance Director of the extremely successful AIM listed biotech company, NeuTec Pharma Limited, leading the business through its IPO to its subsequent sale in 2006 to Novartis Pharma AG for £305 million. He has experience across a range of sectors and has served as Finance Director and company secretary to a number of organisations including Hutchison Whampoa (Europe) Limited, Utility Cable plc and Umbro.com Limited. Most recently he served for five years as CFO to Smart Matrix Limited, a start-up medtech business spun out of a medical research charity. Since 2016 he has acted as an Associate Partner with St. James's Place Wealth Management plc. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant (Price Waterhouse) and has a degree in law.
Dr Satu Vainikka, Chief Executive Officer of ValiRx, commented:
I would like to extend a warm welcome to our Advisory Board and am delighted that we have attracted such experienced and talented individuals to our team. I strongly believe that their counsel and ability to draw on such a spread of proven experience and contacts in our sector, will be of substantial benefit to ValiRx and in the shaping of its strategic direction.
For more information, please contact:
ValiRx plc |
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3008 4416 www.valirx.com |
Dr Satu Vainikka, Chief Executive |
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3008 4416 |
Tarquin Edwards, Head of Communications. |
Tel: +44 (0) 7879 458 364 [email protected] |
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Beaufort Securities Limited (Broker) Jon Belliss |
Tel: +44 (0) 207 382 8300 |
Notes for Editors
About ValiRx
ValiRx is a biotechnology oncology focused company specialising in developing novel treatments for cancer and associated biomarkers. It aims to make a significant contribution in "precision" medicine and science, namely to engineer a breakthrough into human health and well-being, through the early detection of cancer and its therapeutic intervention.
The Company's business model focuses on out-licensing therapeutic candidates early in the development process. By aiming for early-stage value creation, the company reduces risk considerably while increasing the potential for realising value. The group is already in licensing discussions with major players in the oncology field.
ValiRx's two classes of drugs in development, which each have the potential for meeting hitherto unmet medical needs by existing methods, have worldwide patent filings and agreed commercial rights. They originate or derive from world-class institutions, such as Cancer Research UK and Imperial College.
Until recently, cancer treatments relied on non-specific agents, such as chemotherapy. With the development of target-based agents, primed to attack cancer cells only, less toxic and more effective treatments are now possible. New drugs in this group-such as those in ValiRx's pipeline-promise to greatly improve outcomes for cancer patients.
The Company listed on the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange in October 2006 and trades under the ticker symbol: VAL.
