Kiadis Pharma Strengthens Management Team

05.March 2019 at 17:45:00 CET

                                                 
Kiadis Pharma Strengthens Management Team

Dirk de Naeyer appointed Chief Operations Officer and Martine Nolan as Head of Quality Assurance, effective March 1, 2019

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, March 5, 2019 - Kiadis Pharma N.V. ("Kiadis Pharma" or the "Company") (Euronext Amsterdam and Brussels: KDS), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, today announces senior management appointments to further strengthen the Company as it transitions into commercial stage. Dirk de Naeyer, who joined Kiadis Pharma in October 2018 as Head of Supply Chain, moves to the position of Chief Operations Officer, as a planned succession from Jan Feijen.   Martine Nolan joins as Head of Quality Assurance. Both de Naeyer and Nolan will report to Kiadis' CEO Arthur Lahr and be members of the Company's management team.

Arthur Lahr, CEO of Kiadis Pharma, commented: "To start, I would like to thank Jan for his contributions to Kiadis. He has been instrumental in building the operations team with several talented individuals, including Dirk, who has already made a substantial contribution to our supply chain and development. Martine's track record in commercial quality and manufacturing, combined with Dirk's experience leading operations in both clinical and commercial-stage biotechnology companies, will contribute to our position as a leading fully-integrated biopharmaceutical company. I am delighted to welcome Dirk and Martine to their new positions - with their appointments, we have strengthened and completed our leadership team, adding new capabilities and expertise in anticipation of potential product commercialization and scale up."

Prior to joining Kiadis, Mr. de Naeyer was at Janssen Pharmaceuticals where he spent 14 years in various leadership positions. Most recently, he was R&D and Regulatory lead for the integration of Actelion into Janssen. Before that, he was the head of the Janssen Global Clinical Operations team and held supply chain and manufacturing leadership positions in both commercial and clinical-stage small molecules, biologics and stem cell platforms. Mr. de Naeyer joined Janssen after five years at McKinsey. He holds a Masters in Engineering from the KU Leuven, Belgium, and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Ms. Nolan brings over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical sector to Kiadis which she joins from Amgen where she served as Regional Head of Quality Operations, leading a team of more than 200 employees at the Dublin, Ireland and Breda, Netherlands sites. Prior to that Ms. Nolan served as Executive Director for International Quality, Turkey, Middle East & Africa where she had responsibility for quality of both manufacturing and distribution activities. Before joining Amgen, Ms. Nolan held several positions of increasing responsibility in quality operations at Schering-Plough (Merck) in Ireland, Singapore and US. Ms. Nolan holds a MSc in Cellular Physiology from University College Cork and a BSc in Biochemistry from University College Dublin.

For more information, please contact:

Kiadis Pharma:
Amy Sullivan, SVP, Corporate Affairs
Tel. +1 508 479 3480
a.sullivan@kiadis.com
Optimum Strategic Communications:
Mary Clark, Supriya Mathur, Hollie Vile
Tel: +44 203 950 9144
David Brilleslijper (Amsterdam)
Tel: +31 610 942 514
kiadis@optimumcomms.com

 

About Kiadis Pharma
Kiadis Pharma is developing its lead product candidate, ATIR101, for use in conjunction with haploidentical HSCT for adult blood cancers to address key limitations of haploidentical HSCT, without prophylactic immunosuppression and its associated morbidity and mortality. Based on the positive results from the single dose Phase II CR-AIR-007 study, the Company submitted a marketing authorization application to the European Medicines Agency in April 2017 for approval of ATIR101 as an adjunctive treatment in haploidentical HSCT for high risk adult hematological malignancies. If the product is conditionally approved, Kiadis Pharma intends to launch ATIR101 in selected countries in Europe through its own commercial organization starting in the second half of 2019.

In December 2017, Kiadis Pharma commenced an international, multicenter, randomized and controlled Phase III clinical trial of ATIR101 against the Post-Transplant Cyclophosphamide, or PTCy protocol, the main protocol used to perform a haploidentical HSCT. The trial will be performed in 250 patients with acute leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome at approximately 50 sites in the United States, Canada, Europe and certain additional countries. ATIR101 received regenerative medicine advanced therapy designation from the FDA in September 2017, which provides benefits that are materially equivalent to a breakthrough designation from the FDA. In addition, ATIR101 has been granted multiple orphan Drug designations both in the European Union and the United States.

The Company's shares are listed on Euronext Amsterdam and Brussels under the ticker KDS.

Forward Looking Statements
Certain statements, beliefs and opinions in this press release are forward-looking, which reflect Kiadis Pharma's or, as appropriate, Kiadis Pharma's directors' current expectations and projections about future events. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and assumptions could adversely affect the outcome and financial effects of the plans and events described herein. A multitude of factors including, but not limited to, changes in demand, competition and technology, can cause actual events, performance or results to differ significantly from any anticipated development. Forward looking statements contained in this press release regarding past trends or activities should not be taken as a representation that such trends or activities will continue in the future. As a result, Kiadis Pharma expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release any update or revisions to any forward-looking statements in this press release as a result of any change in expectations or any change in events, conditions, assumptions or circumstances on which these forward-looking statements are based. Neither Kiadis Pharma nor its advisers or representatives nor any of its subsidiary undertakings or any such person's officers or employees guarantees that the assumptions underlying such forward-looking statements are free from errors nor does either accept any responsibility for the future accuracy of the forward-looking statements contained in this press release or the actual occurrence of the forecasted developments. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release.