Athebio AG appoints Dr. Victor Levitsky as Scientific Advisor

Athebio AG, a biotech company empowering drug developers by providing custom-built designed ankyrin repeat proteins (i.e. Athebody proteins) today announced the appointment of Dr. Victor Levitsky, MD, PhD, as Scientific Advisor. Dr. Levitsky will serve as an independent Scientific Advisor and support Athebio‘s research and partnering strategies.

Dr. Levitsky is a highly accomplished internationally recognized expert in immunology, oncology, T-cell immunotherapy and immuno-oncology with in-depth knowledge of preclinical, translational and early-stage clinical drug development. In addition to his background in translation of classical immunoglobulin-based therapeutics, he brings extensive experience in pre-clinical drug development of designed ankyrin repeat protein (DARPin)-based biologics. Dr. Levitsky is a medical doctor with a PhD in Virology and post-doctoral training in tumor biology at Karolinska Institute, Sweden. He spent the first 20 years of his career as an academic research scientist, including Associate Professor positions at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the US. Dr. Levitsky currently serves as Global Head of Clinical Oncology Integration at Servier S.A.S., Paris, France. Before, he served as Tumor Immunology Leader and Senior Principal Scientist with Roche in Zurich, as VP Head of Oncology Research at Molecular Partners AG (SIX: MOLN), Zurich, and his most recent position has been CSO at Targovax ASA (OSE: TRVX), Oslo, Norway. Dr. Levitsky is the author of numerous scientific publications.

Patrik Forrer, CEO, commented: “It is with great enthusiasm that we welcome Victor to Athebio! With his broad and deep expertise in immuno-oncology and virology and his extensive experience in the development of DARPins, he will bring valuable scientific and drug development know-how to Athebio. As we progress towards establishing Athebody proteins as building blocks for innovative drugs and move forward with our partnering initiatives, Victor will play an instrumental role in shaping the future for Athebio and our partners.”

Dr. Levitsky added: “I am very excited to be joining Athebio at what is clearly an important stage for the company. Athebio’s proprietary Athebody platform has clear potential to support drug developers in creating next generation industry leading therapeutics. I look forward to joining the strong team at Athebio to help shape the scientific strategy for bringing this promising technology to innovation leaders worldwide.”