HepaRegeniX appoints Elias Papatheodorou as new Chairman of the Board of Directors

Tubingen (Germany), March 30, 2022 – HepaRegeniX GmbH, a clinical stage company developing novel regenerative therapy approaches for the treatment of acute and chronic liver diseases, announced today the appointment of Elias Papatheodorou as chairman of the board of directors with executive functions. He foll0ws Dr. Graham Dixon who served as Chairman on the Board of HeparegeniX since 2017.

“We are delighted to welcome Elias as our new chairman of the board. With two decades of industry experience, he will greatly benefit HepaRegeniX with strategic advice and leadership. His knowledge of the biopharmaceutical industry, in particular business development, operations and capital markets as well as his track record in successful M&A and licensing deals, will contribute immensely to our financing and BD planning and transactions,” said Dr. Wolfgang Albrecht, Managing Director, COO and co-founder of HepaRegeniX. “We thank Graham for his valuable contributions as chairman over the past years and wish him well for his new endeavors.”

“I am happy to join the HepaRegeniX board of directors in these exciting times with the first clinical results ahead and several assets in the pipeline,” added Elias Papatheodorou, Chairman of HepaRegeniX’ Board of Directors. “Together with the team, I am looking forward to contributing to HepaRegeniX’s development strategy and to successfully implementing our vision of providing urgently needed treatment options for severely ill liver patients by enabling regeneration after hepatectomy or degenerative liver diseases.”

Elias Papatheodorou currently serves as an independent chairman of the board at Memo Therapeutics and as a board member at Tribune Therapeutics. Elias Papatheodorou has over 20 years of C-level experience in biotechnology industry, including marketing & sales, business development, M&A, and operations. Previously, he was CEO of Genkyotex, a clinical-stage fibrosis biopharma, acquired by Calliditas Therapeutics in 2021. Before he served as CBO of the multi-specific protein company Covagen, acquired by Janssen in 2014, and CEO of Novosom, an RNA delivery company acquired by Marina Biotech in 2010. He has also held vice and senior vice president positions at MediGene. Elias studied at Ithaca College, NY, and Cornell University, NY, USA.

About HepaRegeniX GmbH
Since 2017, HepaRegeniX has successfully discovered and developed several drug candidates for the treatment of acute and chronic liver diseases based on a novel proprietary molecular target Mitogen-Activated Protein (MAP) Kinase Kinase 4 (MKK4). The first MKK4 inhibitor HRX-0215 recently entered clinical development. MKK4 is a key regulator of liver regeneration and suppression of MKK4 unlocks the regenerative capacity of hepatocytes even in severely diseased livers. This new and unique therapeutic concept was discovered by Prof. Lars Zender and his research group at the University Hospital Tubingen, Germany. Investors in HepaRegeniX include the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF), Novo Holdings A/S, Coparion, High-Tech Gruenderfonds and Ascenion GmbH.