Saniona appoints CNS & rare disease veteran Rami Levin as President and Chief Executive Officer

PRESS RELEASE

January 7, 2020

• Rami Levin to oversee transition to fully-fledged biopharmaceutical company
• Extensive relevant experience in rare disease, CNS and commercialization in U.S and globally
• Jørgen Drejer, current CEO, will continue in the role of Chief Scientific Officer

Saniona (OMX: SANION), a clinical stage biotech company focused on rare diseases relating to eating disorders and the central nervous system (CNS), today announces that it has appointed the highly experienced pharmaceutical industry executive Rami Levin as Chief Executive Officer to oversee its transition to a fully-fledged biopharmaceutical company with focus on rare diseases.

Rami Levin was appointed by the Board of Directors in close consultation with the founders of Saniona, Jørgen Drejer and Thomas Feldthus, based on his extensive relevant experience in bringing treatments for rare diseases to market, as well as in managing and building organizations in the U.S. He also brings familiarity with Sweden and Scandinavia in general from previous roles as President, North America at Sobi (Swedish Orphan Biovitrum) and Managing Director of the Merck Group in Scandinavia.

The appointment is with immediate effect. Rami Levin will be based in Boston. Jørgen Drejer, current CEO, will continue in the role of Chief Scientific Officer of Saniona.

"We are very excited to welcome Rami to Saniona as CEO, a role to which he brings years of highly relevant experience which will now underpin the continuing development of Saniona. Rami has a proven track record in a number of areas critical to Saniona, including rare diseases, the U.S. regulatory and market access environment and commercialization of innovative therapeutics, and are of increasing importance to the company as we seek to bring our highly promising products to markets,” says J. Donald deBethizy, Chairman of the Board of Saniona. "I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Jørgen Drejer, who has done an excellent job as CEO of Saniona. This is a natural point to step up development of the company, and we are looking forward to continue working with Jørgen in his role as CSO developing our pipeline.”

"I am very proud to be taking on this tremendously exciting role with Saniona and overseeing the next stage in the company’s development,” says Rami Levin. "This is an important moment in the history of Saniona, as it aims to become a leading biotech company focusing on rare eating disorders and CNS diseases by developing new treatments that address significant unmet medical needs, both in-house and together with partners. As part of this, our focus in the near-term will be the development and commercial opportunity for Tesomet in the rare eating disorders Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) and in Hypothalamic Obesity (HO), particularly in the U.S.”

About Rami Levin

Rami Levin is a seasoned biotech leader with over 23 years of experience in rare diseases and CNS. In his recent role as President of Sobi Inc., an international specialty biopharmaceutical company dedicated to rare diseases, he was responsible for building the organization, setting its vision, developing strategic growth pillars and leading it through a period of ten-fold growth. As part of that, he led the launch of Gamifant®, the first ever approved treatment for primary hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (pHLH), and the integration of the team behind Synagis®, the only approved treatment for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

Prior to joining Sobi, Rami held commercial leadership roles of increasing strategic importance at Merck Serono in a number of countries, including the U.S., Sweden, Switzerland and Israel. He has considerable experience of the regulatory, access, commercial and financial environment for developing orphan drugs in the U.S., which is directly relevant to the next phase of Saniona’s development. Rami holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and an MBA, majoring in International Marketing, both from Tel Aviv University in Israel. 

For more information, please contact

J. Donald deBethizy, Chairman of the Board of Saniona, Mobile: +45 21 59 07 74, mail: saniona@saniona.com
Thomas Feldthus, EVP and CFO, Saniona, Mobile: +45 2210 9957, E-mail: tf@saniona.com

This information is such information as Saniona AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 08:00 a.m. CET on January 7, 2020.

About Saniona

Saniona is a rare disease biotechnology company focused on research and development of drugs for treatment of eating disorders and diseases of the central nervous system. The company has five programs in clinical development. Saniona intends to develop and commercialize treatments for orphan indications such as Prader-Willi syndrome and hypothalamic obesity on its own. The research is focused on ion channels and the company has a broad portfolio of research programs. Saniona has partnerships with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Productos Medix, S.A de S.V and Cadent Therapeutics. Saniona is based in Copenhagen, Denmark, and the company’s shares are listed at Nasdaq Stockholm Small Cap (OMX: SANION). Read more at www.saniona.com.

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• 20200107 - PR - CEO - UK