Press Release - July 25, 2014
Heidelberg, Germany, July 25, 2014 – Affimed Therapeutics today announced that Ferdinand Verdonck has joined Affimed’s Supervisory Board effective July 14, 2014. He will also serve as chairman of the Audit Committee.
“Ferdinand Verdonck’s leadership in international finance and business is invaluable to a company like ours,” said Adi Hoess, Ph.D., CEO of Affimed. “In particular, he has been a great resource as board member and advisor to several biotechnology companies, and is well-versed in the specifics of our business.”
“I look forward to a close and successful relationship with Affimed’s management and the other Board members,” commented Ferdinand Verdonck, J.D.
Thomas Hecht, M.D., chairman of Affimed, added: “The Supervisory Board has undertaken an extensive search to expand the strength of the Board in financial matters and is extremely happy to have attracted such a renowned person like Ferdinand.”
Mr. Verdonck is chairman of the Supervisory Board of uniQure NV and is a director of Virtus Funds, J.P. Morgan European Investment Trust, Groupe SNEF and Laco Information Services. In recent years he was a member of the board of directors and chairman of the audit committee of two biotechnology companies in Belgium, Movetis and Galapagos. He has previously served as chairman of Banco Urquijo and of Nasdaq Europe and as a director of Dictaphone Corporation. From 1992 to 2003, he was the managing director of Almanij NV, a financial services company which has since merged with KBC, and his responsibilities included company strategy, financial control, supervision of executive management and corporate governance, including board participation in publicly-traded and privately-held companies in many countries. Mr. Verdonck holds a law degree from KU Leuven and degrees in economics from KU Leuven and the University of Chicago.
Affimed is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing highly targeted cancer immunotherapies. Affimed’s product candidates are being developed in the field of immuno-oncology, which represents an innovative approach to cancer treatment that seeks to harness the body’s own immune defenses to fight tumor cells. The most potent cells of the human defense arsenal are types of white blood cells called Natural Killer cells, or NK-cells, and T-cells. Affimed’s proprietary, next-generation bispecific antibodies, called TandAbs for their tandem antibody structure, are designed to direct and establish a bridge between either NK-cells or T-cells and cancer cells, triggering a signal cascade that leads to the destruction of cancer cells.
Affimed Therapeutics
Adi Hoess, CEO
Phone: +49 6221 65307-0
E-Mail: email hidden; JavaScript is required