Targovax announces the appointment of Michael Bogenstaetter as Chief Business Officer

Oslo, Norway, 8 January 2018: Targovax ASA ("Targovax" or "the Company"; OSE: TRVX), a clinical stage company focused on developing immuno-oncology therapies to target solid tumors, announces that Michael Bogenstaetter has been appointed as the Company's Chief Business Officer (CBO). He will take up this role in January 2018.

Michael joins Targovax following 25 years' experience in biotech and big pharma. During this time he held senior business development and strategy positions with Sanofi, Novartis and MDS. Michael has also worked as a consultant with The Boston Consulting Group and, most recently, has acted as an independent corporate and business development advisor to some of the world's top pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. He trained as a chemist and was awarded a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Munich. Michael also holds an MBA from London Business School.

Øystein Soug, CEO of Targovax commented: "We are delighted to announce the appointment of Michael as our Chief Business Officer. His extensive experience of business development and corporate strategy in the biotech and pharma industry will be indispensable to us. 2018 is set to be another important year for the company, containing a number of significant milestones for our pipeline of novel immuno-oncology therapies targeting treatment-resistant solid tumors."

For further information, please contact:
Renate Birkeli, Investor Relations
Phone: +47 922 61 624
Email: [email protected] 

Media and IR enquires:
Andreas Tinglum - Corporate Communications (Norway)
Phone: +47 9300 1773
Email: [email protected]

Julia Phillips/Simon Conway - FTI Consulting (International)
Phone: +44 20 3727 1000
Email: [email protected]   

About Targovax

Arming the patient's immune system to fight cancer

Targovax (OSE:TRVX) is a clinical stage company focused on developing and commercializing novel immuno-oncology therapies to target, primarily, treatment-resistant solid tumors. Immuno-oncology is currently one of the fastest growing therapeutic fields in medicine.

The Company's development pipeline is based on two novel proprietary platforms:

The first platform, ONCOS, uses oncolytic viruses as potential multi-target, neo-antigen therapeutic cancer vaccines. ONCOS uses an adenovirus that has been engineered to be an immune activator that selectively targets cancer cells. In phase I trials it has demonstrated immune activation at lesional level which was associated with clinical benefit. In an ongoing phase I trial in advanced melanoma we expect important proof of concept data for checkpoint inhibitor refractory patients.

The second platform, TG, are neo-antigen cancer vaccines designed to specifically treat tumors that express mutated forms of RAS. Mutations to the RAS protein are common in many cancers and are known to drive aggressive disease progression and treatment resistance. There is a high unmet medical need for therapies that are effective against tumors that express these mutations. The TG platform's therapeutic potential stems from its ability to enable the patient's immune system to identify and destroy tumors bearing any RAS mutations. In early 2017, key proof of concept data for the TG platform from a clinical trial of TG01 in resected pancreatic cancer patients showed encouraging overall survival and will give guidance for the future clinical development of this platform.

Targovax's development pipeline has three novel therapeutic candidates in clinical development covering six indications.

Both platforms are protected by an extensive portfolio of IP and know-how and have the potential to yield multiple product candidates in a cost-effective manner. Additionally, Targovax has other products in early stages of development.

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.