Microbiotica Appoints Hans Schikan as Independent Non-Executive Chairman

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Cambridge, UK, 24 February 2021 – Microbiotica, a leading player in microbiome-based therapeutics and biomarkers, announces the appointment of Hans Schikan as Non-Executive Chairman, effective immediately.

Hans brings decades of commercial, development, transactional and leadership experience from the biopharma industry. He is a well-established biopharma leader, having held many board memberships on both private and publicly listed companies throughout his career, and currently serves on the boards of Pharvaris NV, VectivBio AG, Vicore Pharma AB, Complix NV, InteRNA Technologies BV and the Dutch Top Sector Life Sciences and Health.

Between 2009 and 2015, Hans served as the Chief Executive Officer of Prosensa, a biopharmaceutical company in the rare disease space. There, he and his team struck a key partnership with GlaxoSmithKline targeting Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, and led Prosensa’s $90 million IPO on NASDAQ, before successfully completing the Company’s acquisition by BioMarin for up to $840 million. Prior to his time at Prosensa, Hans served as Vice President Global Marketing and Strategic Development at Genzyme.

Hans will replace Sam Williams, who has served as Interim Chairman for the last ten months, and will continue as a Non-Executive Director representing IP Group plc.

Hans Schikan, non-Executive Chairman of Microbiotica, said: “Microbiome research is rapidly emerging as one of the most exciting areas of biomedicine and one that I believe presents great potential for a wide range of therapeutic fields. Microbiotica’s world-leading platform, ongoing collaborations and internal pipeline, especially in the immuno-oncology space, positions the Company well for future growth in this sector. I believe my experience can support the Company on its growth trajectory, and I look forward to working with the Board to help Microbiotica bring new therapies to patients.”

Mike Romanos, CEO of Microbiotica, said: “We are delighted to welcome Hans as Chairman of the Board of Directors. This has been a year of significant progress for the Company, with a newly strengthened management team, a new Company site in Cambridge and progression into development of our cutting-edge immuno-oncology programme with Cancer Research UK and Cambridge University Hospitals that has yielded exceptional preclinical data. Hans’ experience in developing innovative companies internationally will be invaluable in supporting our strategic growth, and we greatly look forward to working with him.”

-ENDS-

Contact:

Microbiotica:
Ro Gardner
T: +44 1223 786063 / M: +44 7801 480569
E: rgardner@microbiotica.com

Microbiotica (Media relations):
Melanie Toyne-Sewell / Phil Marriage / Nathan Billis
T: +44 20 7457 2020
E : microbiotica@instinctif.com

NOTES TO EDITORS

About Microbiotica
Microbiotica is a leading player in the field of microbiome-based therapeutics, biomarkers and targets. The Company is building a growing pipeline of best-in-class differentiated products based on high quality clinical datasets and unique bacterial signatures that drive biology, identified by its proprietary platform.

Consisting of the world’s leading microbiome Reference Genome Database, Culture Collection, mass culturing technology (Personalised Bacterial Bank) and proprietary AI tools, Microbiotica’s platform enables unrivalled strain-level microbiome analysis linked to patient phenotypes. The Company’s current therapeutic areas of focus are immuno-oncology and IBD, and it has established major clinical and academic partnerships, including a $534 million collaboration with Genentech.

Spun out of the Sanger Institute in 2016 by Dr Mike Romanos, Dr Trevor Lawley and Professor Gordon Dougan, the Company is based at Chesterford Research Park near Cambridge, UK. Microbiotica’s investor syndicate includes Cambridge Innovation Capital, IP Group plc and Seventure Partners.

For more information, please visit www.microbiotica.com, LinkedIn and Twitter.