4basebio Plc - Strategic Advisory Board & Appointment of Director

8 August 2024

4basebio PLC

("4basebio" or the "Company")

Strategic Advisory Board Formation

Appointment of Director

Cambridge, UK, 8th August 2024 - 4basebio PLC (AIM: 4BB), an innovation-led provider of novel synthetic DNA products and a non-viral, thermostable nucleic acid delivery platform announces the formation of a Strategic Advisory Board and the appointment of Dr Amy Walker, the Vice President of Research and Business Development to the Board of Directors of the Company as Chief Operating Officer.

Strategic Advisory Board

Effective from 1 July 2024, the Company formed a Strategic Advisory Board (“SAB”), with the purpose of offering the Company’s leadership team valuable advice and industry insight spanning technical, operational, commercial and strategic matters as well as supporting the Company in the realisation of its growth goals and objectives.

The SAB advisers are engaged for an initial period of 12 months from its formation and will meet with the leadership team periodically. The SAB comprises the following experts:

Bertrand Coissac, CEO at Twogene: Mr. Coissac has extensive experience in the life science industry with a focus on cell and gene therapy manufacturing. Before co-founding and leading Twogene, Mr. Coissac was Vice President of Corporate Development at Polyplus which was successfully acquired by Sartorius in July 2023.

Lawrence Pitcher, VP at Catalent Pharma Solutions: Mr. Pitcher is currently the Vice President and General Manager, Maryland Gene Therapy Sites at Catalent Pharma Solutions. He brings significant operational and business experience from his current Catalent role and previous roles at Thermo Fisher Scientific where he was most recently the General Manager of the Advance Therapies business.

Deborah Barbara, Former Vice President at Maravai Life Sciences:  Ms. Barbara has over 30 years of life science industry experience in a variety of strategic business and corporate development roles, most recently as Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development for Maravai Life Sciences. Prior to joining Maravai, Ms. Barbara was General Manager of Nucleic Acid Therapeutics business for Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Appointment of Director

In addition to the above, the Company announces the appointment of Dr Amy Walker as Chief Operating Officer of the Company.

Dr Walker joined 4basebio in November 2020 and has served as the Vice President of Research and Business Development at the Company. Dr Walker has a background in molecular biology and gene editing technologies, along with associated nucleic acid nanoparticle delivery platforms. She holds a PhD from UCL Institute of Child Health and was awarded the prestigious Bogue Fellowship, conducting part of her doctoral studies at both University of British Colombia and McGill University, Montreal. Dr Walker has many years scientific and commercial experience in life sciences, has published scientific papers and is named inventor on numerous multidisciplinary patents. She currently holds non-executive director Board positions on two other high growth healthcare companies.

Pursuant to Rule 17 and Schedule 2(g) of the AIM Rules for Companies, the following information is disclosed in respect of Dr Amy Jo Walker (aged 31): 

Dr Walker holds 51,506 ordinary shares equating to approximately 0.4 per cent. in the Company, and 42,128 options over new ordinary shares in the Company.

There is no further information regarding Dr Walker required to be disclosed under the AIM Rules. 

Dr Heikki Lanckriet, CEO at of 4basebio, commented:  “The adoption of synthetic DNA is rapidly increasing among cell and gene therapy innovators, with our technology now being utilized in several clinical programs. As we advance our commercial development, the combined expertise of Bertrand, Larry, and Deb in the life sciences and advanced therapies markets will be invaluable to 4basebio. We look forward to collaborating with this team to drive our company's success.

“Alongside the formation of the SAB, the Company has reached a new milestone in appointing Amy as its first Chief Operating Officer underlining its rapid growth.  Amy has been instrumental in that growth and I am delighted to welcome her to the Board of Directors.”

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014 as amended by regulation 11 of the market abuse (amendment) (EU Exit) regulations 2019/310.

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Notes to Editors

About 4basebio

4basebio (AIM: 4BB) is an innovation driven life biotechnology company focused on accelerating the development of advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) through its high-performance synthetic DNA products and non-viral, cell targeting nucleic acid delivery platform. The Company’s objective is to become a market leader in the manufacture and supply of high-quality synthetic DNA products for research, therapeutic and pharmacological use as well as development of target specific non-viral vectors for the efficient delivery of payloads in patients.

Forward-looking statements

This announcement may contain certain statements about the future outlook for 4basebio.  Although the directors believe their expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, any statements about future outlook may be influenced by factors that could cause actual outcomes and results to be materially different.