Affimed Therapeutics AG, the therapeutic TandAb antibody company, today announced the appointment of Dr Adi Hoess as Chief Commercial Officer, effective immediately. His areas of responsibility will include commercial and strategic management aspects as well as business development.
Dr Hoess compliments the management team of Affimed and contributes more than 17 years of experience in business development, strategic planning and commercialization in the biotechnology sector.
Before joining Affimed, Dr Hoess was Chief Executive Officer at Berlin-based Jenowis AG. Prior to 2009 he was with Jerini AG, where he served, as Chief Commercial Officer and was responsible for the product launch of Firazyr and business development. During his professional career, Dr Hoess was vice president and general manager of the Molecular Medical Division at Carl Zeiss Jena. Also, he held senior management positions in business development at MorphoSys AG, most recently as vice president licensing/business development. During this time, he was responsible for the closing of several major collaborations and licensing agreements.
Dr Rolf Guenther, Chief Executive Officer of Affimed, commented: "The clinical development of our lead product candidate AFM13 and the continuing expansion of our product pipeline will further strengthen our position as a therapeutic antibody company. We are very pleased indeed to have attracted Dr. Hoess, with his long-term experience and expertise, to our management team. I am very confident he will significantly build the strategic and commercial development of Affimed and our product candidates."
Dr Adi Hoess added: "The TandAb platform and the derived products provide very promising potential that will enable Affimed to become a leading player in the world of bispecific antibodies. Initially, I will focus on one major goal; partnerships with the pharmaceutical industry for our products and platform."
Dr Hoess studied chemistry and biochemistry at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich and was awarded a postdoctoral research grant from the German Cancer Research Centre. During this time, he worked at the renowned Dana-Farber Cancer Institute of the Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA and the Medical Research Institute of the Technical University of Munich. In 1997, Dr Hoess qualified as a university lecturer.
