Board Changes

RNS Number : 5071T

C4X Discovery Holdings PLC

04 July 2018

 

C4X Discovery Holdings plc

("C4XD", "C4X Discovery" or the "Company")

Board Changes

Eva-Lotta Allan appointed Non-Executive Chairman of the Board

Board further strengthened with the appointment of Natalie Walter

4 July 2018 - C4X Discovery Holdings plc (AIM: C4XD), a pioneering drug discovery company, today announces that Eva-Lotta Allan and Natalie Walter have been appointed as Non-Executive Chairman of the Board and Non-Executive Director respectively, with immediate effect.

Eva-Lotta has more than 30 years' experience in the healthcare industry. During this time, she has been a Senior Executive and Board member at both public and private companies. Most recently, Eva-Lotta was Chief Business Officer (and previously a Board member) at Immunocore, where she held full responsibility for all aspects of business development and played an instrumental role in the $320 million fundraising in 2015. Prior to this, Eva-Lotta served as Chief Business Officer and member of the Executive Committee and Euronext IPO team for Ablynx NV. 

Eva-Lotta also held senior positions at Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Europe) Ltd (now with a market capitalisation of $43 billion), Oxford Asymmetry International plc (now Evotec with a market capitalisation of EUR 2.2 billion), Oxford Glycosciences (now part of UCB Celltech with a market capitalisation of EUR 12.8 billion) and Amersham International (now part of GE Healthcare).

Eva-Lotta currently serves as Non-Executive Director and Member of the Corporate Governance Committee and the R&D Sub-Committee of Oslo listed company, Targovax ASA and is a Non-Executive Director of Crescendo Biologics. Until earlier this year, Eva-Lotta was also a Board Member of the UK BioIndustry Association (BIA).

Natalie Walter is a corporate finance lawyer with more than 20 years of experience advising on international equity capital markets transactions in the healthcare sector. Most recently, Natalie was an Equity Partner at Covington & Burling LLP. Prior to this, Natalie had been an Equity Partner at Morrison & Foerster LLP and had spent part of her career as a Director and Legal Counsel on the ECM desk at Lehman Brothers. Natalie currently consults as General Counsel to Oxford BioMedica plc, having previously acted as "external" General Counsel to a number of companies and financial institutions, advising boards on a range of strategic, transactional and general corporate finance matters, with particular expertise in advising on deals in the life sciences and med tech sectors. Natalie also sits as a Non-Executive Director on the Board of RSA (Holdings) Ltd, a boutique talent consultancy in life sciences.

Sam Williams, interim Chairman of the Board, will be stepping down from this role and from the Board today to focus on his other business interests.

Eva-Lotta Allan, incoming Chair of the Board of Directors of C4X Discovery, commented: "I am delighted to join C4X Discovery's experienced leadership team and Board of Directors at such an exciting time for the Company. Its combination of cutting edge drug discovery technologies and proven ability to strike high value deals, such as the very recent $294 million with Indivior, positions C4X exceptionally well for the future."

Natalie Walter, incoming Non-Executive Director of C4X Discovery, commented: "C4X Discovery's business model, ambition and high-quality team make for a compelling proposition for investors and I look forward to being part of the Company's ongoing development and future success."

Commenting on the appointments, Dr Clive Dix, Chief Executive Officer of C4X Discovery, said: "I am very pleased to welcome Eva-Lotta and Natalie to the Board. They are both highly experienced leaders in the life sciences sector with outstanding track records across business and strategy development, legal and finance, as well as capital market transactions. I look forward to working with Eva-Lotta, Natalie and the rest of the Board to realise our aim of becoming the world's most productive drug discovery engine.

"Separately, I would like to thank Sam Williams for his significant contribution to C4X Discovery's growth in his time as Interim Chairman and as a Non-Executive Director. I wish him every success in the future."

Additional information

In accordance with the AIM Rules for Companies, the following information required to be disclosed in relation to Eva-Lotta Coulter and Natalie Walter is set out below. Other than this information, there are no further details required to be disclosed pursuant to paragraph (g) of Schedule 2 of the AIM Rules for Companies.

Eva-Lotta Coulter (formerly Allan), aged 58, is or has been in the previous five years, a director or partner, of the following companies:

Current appointments	Past appointments
Bioindustry Association	Immunocore Limited
Crescendo Biologics Limited
Targovax ASA

Eva-Lotta Coulter currently holds no beneficial interest in the Company.

Natalie Louise Walter (formerly Diep), aged 44, is or has been in the previous five years, a director or partner, of the following companies:

Current appointments	Past appointments
Natalie Walter Consulting Limited	Covington and Burling LLP
Natalie Walter Limited
RSA (Holdings) Ltd

Natalie Walter currently holds no beneficial interest in the Company.

--ENDS--

For further information, please contact:

C4X Discovery Holdings plc

Clive Dix, Chief Executive Officer                                                                                             [phone]

Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited (NOMAD and Broker)                                                      [phone]

Freddy Crossley, Emma Earl (Corporate Finance)                                                                                             

Consilium Strategic Communications

Mary-Jane Elliott, Chris Gardner, Matthew Neal                                                                [phone]

About C4X Discovery

C4X Discovery aims to become the world's most productive drug discovery engine by exploiting cutting edge technologies to design and create best-in-class small-molecule candidates targeting a range of high value therapeutic areas. The company's goal is to drive returns through early-stage revenue-generating deals with the pharmaceutical industry.

C4X Discovery has a state-of-the-art suite of proprietary technologies across the drug discovery process. The company's innovative DNA-based target identification platform (Taxonomy3®) utilises human genetic datasets to identify novel patient-specific targets leading to greater discovery productivity and increased probability of clinical success. This is complemented by C4XD's novel drug design platform which comprises two innovative chemistry technologies, Conformetrix and Molplex, that combine 4D molecular shape analyses (based on experimental data) with best-in-class computational chemistry. This provides new and unprecedented insight into the behaviour of drug molecules, enabling the production of potent selective compounds faster and more cost effectively than the industry standard.

C4X Discovery is advancing its in-house pipeline in inflammation, neurodegeneration, immuno-oncology, addiction, and diabetes with a number of new drug candidates identified and further progress made towards the pre-clinical licensing discussions. In selecting new targets C4X Discovery focuses on high-value disease areas and maximise value from areas such as: immuno-oncology, addiction, and diabetes. The Company recently signed a licensing agreement with Indivior for addiction programme worth up to $294m.

The Company was founded as a spin-out from the University of Manchester. It has a highly experienced management team and Board who have delivered significant value creation within the healthcare sector historically and have enabled C4XD to reach multiple value inflexion points since IPO. For additional information please go to: www.c4xdiscovery.com

 

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