Transgene appoints Hedi Ben Brahim as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Strasbourg, France, December 3, 2020, 06:00 pm CET – Transgene (Euronext Paris: TNG), a biotech company that designs and develops virus-based immunotherapeutics against cancer, announced that the Board, at its meeting today, approved the appointment of Hedi Ben Brahim as the Company’s new Chairman and CEO, effective January 1^st, 2021. Hedi Ben Brahim, who has been a member of Transgene’s Board since May 2019, will replace Philippe Archinard. Philippe Archinard has led the company since 2005 and will remain a member of the Board of Transgene.

Alain Mérieux, honorary Chairman of Transgene, said: I would like to thank Philippe Archinard for his commitment to Transgene over the last 15 years. Under his leadership, the Company has demonstrated the potential of virus-based immunotherapies and developed world class innovative therapies that could be game-changers in the field of cancer treatment. Based on these achievements, I believe Transgene is now ideally placed to further demonstrate the value of its approaches. I am confident that Hedi Ben Brahim, together with Transgene’s highly skilled team, will build on this strong foundation to generate multiple novel virus-based immunotherapeutics that will both deliver important clinical benefits to cancer patients and value for shareholders.”

“It is a great honor and pleasure to join the Transgene executive team. I am excited to take on this new role having seen the significant potential of Transgene’s technology platforms and their potential to bring improved clinical benefits to cancer patients globally. Trangene’s Invir.IO™ and myvac® platforms are significant breakthroughs in multi-armed oncolytic virus therapy and individualized vaccines respectively. In addition, with the positive Phase 1b/2 data of TG4001, Transgene has established the relevance of its virus-based immunotherapy for HPV-positive cancer patients. I look forward to continuing the development of this promising candidate and further strengthen our exciting immune-oncology pipeline”, added Hedi Ben Brahim.

Hedi Ben Brahim joins Transgene from Institut Mérieux where he was Vice-President for Immunotherapy since September 2018. In this role, he was the Chairman of ABL Inc., a contract research & development, and contract biomanufacturing organization (CRO/CMO). Prior to joining the Institut Mérieux, he was General Manager at a subsidiary of Vallourec, a solutions provider to the energy sector. Hedi began his career in the public sector at the Ministry of the Economy, Action and Public Accounts, then at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. He is a graduate of the École Polytechnique and the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris.

Philippe Archinard will become Executive Vice-President, Technological Innovation and Scientific Partnerships at Institut Mérieux. Philippe Archinard will remain Board Member of Transgene.

Transgene’s Board has also been notified of the change of the Director representing TSGH (Institut Mérieux); Dominique Takizawa is to be replaced by Sandrine Flory as of January 1^st, 2021. Sandrine has been Chief Financial Officer of Institut Mérieux since March 2020. She has spent 18 years at bioMérieux, in various positions in finance. She was CFO for bioMérieux EMEA from 2014 to 2020. Prior to joining bioMérieux, Sandrine spent 9 years at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in France and Australia. Sandrine holds a master in Finance and Accounting and a MS in Business Valuation and Transmission from the Université Lyon 2 (France).