Charlotte Fribert is appointed CEO of Toleranzia
4 April - 2016
The Board of Toleranzia AB (“Toleranzia”) announces that Charlotte Fribert, currently Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the company, is appointed CEO after the current CEO Björn Löwenadler, who returns to the role of Business Development Director. Fribert, as well as Löwenadler, has extensive experience in the industry, and both provide a guarantee for a continued sound development of the company. Fribert takes over as CEO of Toleranzia April 11, 2016.
Charlotte Fribert, born 1967, has a solid background in medicine from the Karolinska Institute and the Pierre and Marie Curie University of Sorbonne in Paris, where she also obtained a PhD in immunology and biotechnology. Before Fribert began working at Toleranzia she worked as Project Director in drug development at AstraZeneca in Mölndal.Prior to that she founded, developed and ran Epixis SA, a vaccine development company based in Paris, which she successfully sold to VBI Vaccines Inc. in the US.
Fribert joined Toleranzia in the spring of 2015 with the task of leading the company’s strategically important Eurostars project, which is a key resource in the development of Toleranzia’s myasthenia gravis tolerogen.
Prior to the listing of Toleranzia on AktieTorget in November 2015, Fribert was appointed COO of the company and took an active role in the listing process. Fribert’s knowledge and past experience gives her a very good foundation to lead Toleranzia’s further development. Fribert takes over as CEO of Toleranzia April 11, 2016.
– I am honored to receive this promotion. Toleranzia has a unique platform technology and its business opportunities are great, says Charlotte. Our strategic choice to develop our first drug candidate in the orphan disease myasthenia gravis makes us well positioned to independently conduct clinical studies in an important disease with significant unmet medical needs and also to validate the technology. If we succeed in this, we have the basis for the development of new drugs in a number of other autoimmune diseases with a large number of patients and for which there is still a need for new, safe and effective therapies. I eagerly look forward, as the CEO and together with fellow employees, to continue developing the company such that we achieve our overall goal to develop important new medicines.
The current CEO Björn Löwenadler will continue to play an active role in the company in the role of Business Development Director. The Board of Toleranzia thank Löwenadler for his extraordinarily good efforts as CEO and welcome his continued commitment which guarantees good continuity.
Chairman Elisabet Litsmark Nordenstam comments:
– When Charlotte Fribert began working at Toleranzia a year ago, she integrated very quickly and showed that she had a great capacity to take on the growing tasks she has undertaken since. When Björn Löwenadler announced that he wished to return to the role of Business Development Director on a half-time basis, it was only natural to appoint Charlotte as his successor. Charlotte and Björn have been a very strong team in the management of Toleranzia and I am delighted that they continue together. I and all other members of the board confidently look forward to seeing Toleranzia, under Charlotte’s leadership, further developing and achieving clinical and commercial success.
For further information, please contact:
Elisabet Litsmark Nordenstam – Chairman of the Board
Phone: +46 705 50 86 17
Email: elisabet.litsmark@toleranzia.com
Charlotte Fribert – incoming CEO
Phone: +46 763 19 98 98
Email: charlotte.fribert@toleranzia.com
About Toleranzia AB
Toleranzia AB (556877-2866) has developed a platform technology for treatment of autoimmune diseases. The company´s main project is directed towards an autoimmune neuromuscular disease, myasthenia gravis, with a significant need for an effective treatment and an extensive market potential, for which Toleranzia has been granted Orphan Drug Designation in both EU and US. The platform technology enables development of therapies that target the root cause of the disease – not just the symptoms, which is the mainstay of current treatment. In addition to myasthenia gravis, the platform technology has been evaluated in three further disease indications – rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes, where positive treatment effects have been obtained in disease-relevant animal models. Toleranzia was founded by researchers at the University of Gothenburg. The company has operations at the Biotech center in Gothenburg. Further reading at: www.toleranzia.com.