Targinta recruits Per Norlén as CEO

Lund, Sweden, May 4, 2021 - Xintela announces today that Per Norlén has been recruited as CEO of Xintela's wholly owned oncology subsidiary Targinta. He will start on 1 September 2021. Per Norlén will also have the role of Xintela's Chief Medical Officer (CMO) from 1 July 2021. The recruitment is an important step in the process of spinning out Targinta as an independent company.

- With Per Norlén, Targinta gets a CEO who combines strong leadership with long experience of drug development, focused on early stage development. With his previous experience with antibody-based drugs for the treatment of cancer, Per has the leadership skills  to transform Targinta into a strong company at the forefront of cancer therapy development and thereby create value for patients, shareholders and all other stakeholders, says Xintela’s and Targinta's chairman Greg Batcheller.

Per Norlén is a physician, board certified in clinical pharmacology, with extensive research experience and 20 years of experience from early phase clinical drug development. Most recently he was CEO and before that CMO at Alligator Bioscience AB. Apart from being CEO, Per Norlén will also hold the positions of CMO in Targinta as well as in Xintela, where he replaces Sven Kili.

- It is a great pleasure to take on the leadership of the future development of Targinta. Its anti-cancer antibodies are specific to a unique target, integrin α10β1, which has been identified and evaluated through extensive research efforts at Xintela and Targinta. The target is overexpressed in certain aggressive cancers, such as glioblastoma and triple-negative breast cancer. Targeted integrin α10β1 antibodies thus offer a novel approach to treating cancer, with the potential to prevent both growth and metastasis. The target is also expressed on stem cells which forms the basis for Xintela’s selection of stem cells and development of stem cell therapies including treatment of the joint disease osteoarthritis

It is a privilege to be joining the team responsible for the clinical development of these truly innovative therapies, says Per Norlén.

Xintela has previously announced its aim for Targinta to become an independent and self-financed company in 2021.  The recruitment of Per Norlén is an important step in that process. Evy Lundgren-Åkerlund, Targinta’s current CEO, will have the role as Chief Scientific Officer in the company.

This information is such information that Xintela AB (publ) is obligated to publish in compliance with the EU market abuse regulation. The information was provided, through the below contact, for publication at 08:55 CET on the 4th of May, 2021.

Xintela AB (publ)
Evy Lundgren-Åkerlund, CEO
Tel: +46 46 275 65 00
Email: evy@xintela.se
Medicon Village
223 81 Lund, Sweden
www.xintela.se 

About Xintela
Xintela develops innovative and patent protected cell therapies and targeted cancer therapies based on the marker technology platform XINMARK®. The platform is built on specific cell surface proteins (integrins) and more than 25 years of research and development. Xintela uses the marker technology to select and quality assure stem cells to develop stem cell therapies for diseases that today lack efficient treatment options, including the joint disease osteoarthritis (OA). Studies on horses with OA have demonstrated that the stem cells are safe and that they have a positive effect on cartilage and bone. Xintela has established an in-house GMP-facility for manufacturing of stem cell products and is preparing a First in Human clinical study on patients with knee OA. In the oncology program, Xintela develops antibody-based therapies for treatment of aggressive tumors including glioblastoma and triple-negative breast cancer. Xintela is listed on Nasdaq First North Growth Market Stockholm since 22 March 2016. Xintela's Certified Adviser at Nasdaq First North Growth Market is Erik Penser Bank AB, +46 8-463 80 00, certifiedadviser@penser.se.