Bavarian Nordic is implementing a management change to strengthen the company’s international production structure. The new management consists of Peter Wulff, Paul Chaplin and René Djurup.
Following the acquisition of Berlin-based GTB GenTherapeutika Berlin-Buch GmbH earlier this month, Bavarian Nordic now operates facilities in Copenhagen, Berlin and Munich.
Bavarian Nordic’s administrative and business development activities are grouped in Copenhagen, including a number of key corporate functions such as marketing, QA, finance and IT. Pre-clinical development activities are also conducted at laboratories in Copenhagen. The Munich premises house our research and clinical development activities as well as patents department. In Berlin, we currently operate our production development activities, and from the autumn of 2003, the facilities will be used for manufacturing materials for clinical trials of the MVA-BN vaccines. In addition, IDT (Impstoffwerk Dessau-Tornau GmbH) in Germany manufactures the Elstree-BN and MVA-BN smallpox vaccines on contract for Bavarian Nordic.
Our partner in the UK, PowderJect, that Chiron is in the process of acquiring, endeavours to implement Bavarian Nordic’s production technology for Elstree-BN in order to boost production capacity. At the turn of the year, we began designing a production facility next to our existing facilities in Copenhagen.
In order to strengthen the development and management of Bavarian Nordic’s future global vaccine production, we recently appointed René Djurup Vice President of Technical Operations & Chief Technical Officer. The appointment will take effect from 1 July 2003. Taking up this new corporate position, René Djurup will be in charge of the company’s global production, including technical development, operations and production planning. René Djurup previously held a position as CEO of Danish biotech company Leukotech and holds extensive management experience in the fields of development, production, quality assurance and business operations in pharmaceutical and biotech companies.
At the same time, we appoint Paul Chaplin as General Manager of our German subsidiary. Paul Chaplin (35) joined Bavarian Nordic in 1999 and currently holds a position as Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President of Research & Development. He will continue to serve in these functions as General Manager of the German subsidiary.
Peter Wulff (49), a co-founder of Bavarian Nordic, continues as President and CEO, and is responsible for the company’s investor relations activities.
In connection with the designing of the company’s future organisational and production structure, Bo Sandroos (37) will resign from his position as CFO due to disagreements with the other members of the management team concerning the corporate strategy. Ulrik Feldsted Hjort, Director of Finance and IT, will take charge of the company’s finance and treasury departments and report to Peter Wulff. Claus Bo Madsen, QAC Manager, will continue to be responsible for quality assurance, and Morten Rasmussen, Director Transactions and Legal, will take charge of implementing all contract negotiations. Claus Bo Madsen and Morten Rasmussen will both report to Peter Wulff.
From 1 July 2003, Bavarian Nordic’s corporate management group will consist of Peter S. Wulff, President and Chief Executive Officer, Paul Chaplin, Chief Scientific Officer, and René Djurup, Chief Technical Officer.
