Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, Januar 4, 2023 – Eleva, a pioneer in unlocking difficult-to-produce biologics based on a breakthrough manufacturing platform, announced today the appointment of Henrik Luessen, PharmD, Ph.D., as new Chief Business Officer. His appointment reflects the growing maturity of Eleva’s proprietary pipeline programs targeting rare diseases and complement-related disorders, which are powered by the Company’s unique moss-based manufacturing system.

Henrik Luessen has 25+ years of leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical industry across multiple business models, therapeutic areas, and companies, including past CBO roles at Sapreme Technologies, Promethera BioSciences, and OctoPlus. At OctoPlus, Henrik was instrumental in the transition of the company from a biopharmaceutical R&D service provider to a drug development organization with two proprietary products in clinical trials. As a serial entrepreneur, Henrik co-founded several life science start-ups including Symbiotec, Nanomi, and Activaero and supported their growth leading to several trade sales. In total, Henrik has managed around 250 IP-related, transactional, and licensing deals during his career.

“Eleva continues to strengthen its leadership team as we entered a transformative period for the company. Our lead assets are advancing into and through clinical trials respectively and Henrik’s expertise will be extremely valuable to position these programs and evaluate potential partnerships,” commented Björn Cochlovius Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Eleva. “At the same time, the importance of differentiated manufacturing capabilities will only grow in our industry. Eleva is uniquely positioned with our proprietary moss-based manufacturing platform, which has the potential to unlock several commercially difficult-to-produce biologics, which may also benefit from the human glycosylation patterns our cell line provides.”

Commenting on his appointment, Henrik Luessen added: “I’m thrilled to join Eleva as the company approaches key value inflections points with pipeline assets addressing significant unmet market needs. Our Factor H program has the potential to provide a therapeutic option that is clearly differentiated from the standard-of-care by leaving the immune system’s ability to fight infections intact. Our enzyme replacement strategy, exemplified by aGal (RPV-001), plays to the strengths of our technology platform as a scalable and cost-efficient manufacturing process is key in this sector.”