Clavis Pharma appoints two internationally experienced pharma executives Anders P. Wiklund and Annette V. Clancy to its Board of Directors

Clavis Pharma ASA (OSE: CLAVIS), the Norwegian cancer drug development company, is pleased to announce that Anders P. Wiklund and Annette V. Clancy have been elected to serve on its Board of Directors as Chairman and non-Executive director, respectively. The decision was taken at the Company’s annual general meeting held in Oslo on May 20, 2010, at which Keith McCullagh (former Chairman), Gert Caspritz and Stina Gestrelius stepped down from the board.

Anders P.Wiklund has gained a wealth of business and corporate development experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry from a career in Europe and the US spanning 40 years. He spent 29 years with the Kabi and Pharmacia group of companies, where he held a number of different positions, such as Managing Director of KabiVitrum in the UK, President of KabiVitrum International in Sweden, President and CEO of KabiVitrum and KabiPharmacia in the USA.

In 1997, he founded Wiklund International, an advisory firm to the biotech industry, working with clients from Europe and North America as an advisor to CEOs in the areas of strategy, corporate and business development.

The same year, he co-founded Esperion Therapeutics and served for several years on its board of directors prior to its acquisition by Pfizer for $1.3 billion. He was also head of Business Development for Biacore AB from 1997 to 2003 and he was President of US company EffRx Inc. from 2007 to 2009.

Anders has also advised a number of venture capital funds in the US and Sweden and served on the board of portfolio companies, including Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals (US), InSiteVision (US), Trega Bioscience (US), GlycoDesign (Canada), Medivir (Sweden) and Gyros (Sweden). He currently serves on the board of EffRx, QuatRx and Inspirion Delivery Technologies in the US and Pharmalink and Life Medical in Sweden.

Annette V. Clancy has more than 25 years experience in the global pharmaceutical industry, predominantly spent with GlaxoSmithKline based in the US and the UK working in a variety of functions (R&D, Worldwide Strategic Marketing and Licensing/Business Development). She played a key role in the success of GSK’s global business development group and was responsible for structuring and delivering some of GSK’s most innovative deals with the biotech sector over the past 15 years.

Annette currently serves as a senior advisor at the US-based venture capital firm Frazier Healthcare Ventures, and is presently chair of GSK’s Respiratory R&D team and Non-executive Director at Silence Therapeutics PLC.

Anders P. Wiklund, Chairman of Clavis Pharma, commented: “I look forward to working with Clavis Pharma as it enters into a new and exciting phase of both clinical and commercial development. The Company has produced some very promising clinical data from its novel anti-cancer product candidates based on its Lipid Vector Technology. This technology has potential to improve the efficacy of products that have become the backbone of therapy in multiple cancer indications.

“The addition of Annette and me to the Board provides further international commercial experience from which to draw as the Company advances its strategy to become a successful international cancer-focused drug company. I would like to thank Keith McCullagh, former chairman, Gert Caspritz and Stina Gestrelius, who stepped down from the Board at our AGM, for their valuable contribution to the Company over the past few years.”

The new board of Clavis Pharma comprises Anders Wiklund (Chairman), Geir Stormorken (Deputy Chairman), Annette Clancy, Carl Christian Gilhuus-Moe, Kaci Kullman Five, Karol Sikora and Hilde Hermansen Steineger.

www.clavispharma.com