Stockholm, Sweden — Medivir AB (Nasdaq Stockholm: MVIR) announced today its plans to concentrate its activities on clinical development. As a result, the board has appointed Dr. Uli Hacksell as the company’s acting CEO. Dr. Hacksell, currently on the board of Medivir, succeeds Christine Lind as of today, October 15.
“Medivir has a very strong clinical portfolio with inflection points in the near future that are crucial for optimizing its value. This calls for a firm management that is able to reinforce the focus on clinical development throughout the company,” says Anna Malm Bernsten, chairman of the Medivir board.
“Uli is truly qualified to take over the leadership and his well-documented expertise in pharmaceutical R&D will be of great value to Medivir. Furthermore, he has a broad experience from building cost-efficient internationally leading biotech companies. At the same time, I want to thank Christine Lind for the dedicated work she has done for Medivir,” Anna Malm Bernsten continues.
“I look forward to taking on this role at a very important stage for Medivir. The Board of Directors has worked on a plan that will concentrate Medivir’s attention on the company’s robust clinical pipeline composed of transformative cancer drugs with multi-billion dollar sales potential. I will come back within short to present the relevant measures,” says Dr. Hacksell.
Medivir's clinical pipeline consists of four projects; remetinostat for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (phase II), birinapant in combination with Keytruda® for solid tumors (phase I), MIV-818, a nucleotide prodrug for liver cancer that recently entered into a phase I clinical trial, and MIV-711, an osteoarthritis candidate drug with fresh and promising data from the recent phase IIa extension study.
For further information, please contact:
For media information:
Cord Communications
Lars Wahlström, phone: +46 (0)734 340 771. lars.wahlstrom@cordcom.se
Anna Malm Bernsten, Chairman of the Board, Medivir AB, phone: +46 (0)8 5468 31 00
Medivir AB is obliged to make this information public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation.
The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact persons set out above, at 08.30 CET on October 15, 2018.
About Dr. Uli Hacksell
Dr. Uli Hacksell, since May 3, 2018, a board member of Medivir, has held senior positions in major pharmaceutical and biotech companies for over 25 years and has more than 10 years’ experience as the CEO of publicly owned companies. As the CEO of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals from 2000−2015, he led its development from a private start-up to a public, multi-billion dollar company. In the 1990s, he held senior positions at Astra AB, prior to which he was a Professor of Organic Chemistry at Uppsala University. He received a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry in 1981 and a Master of Pharmacy in 1976 from Uppsala University.
About Medivir
Medivir is a pharmaceutical company with a focus on oncology. We have a leading competence within protease inhibitors and nucleotide/nucleoside science and we are dedicated to innovative pharmaceuticals that meet great unmet medical needs. Medivir's clinical pipeline consists of remetinostat for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, currently in phase II, birinapant in combination with Keytruda® for solid tumors, currently in phase I, MIV-818, a nucleotide prodrug drug for liver cancer that recently entered into a phase I clinical trial, and MIV-711, a potentially disease-modifying osteoarthritis candidate drug with fresh and promising data from the recent phase IIa extension study. Medivir is listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm Mid Cap List (ticker: MVIR). www.medivir.com.