Beactica announces the completion of its latest financing round and the appointments of Erik Walldén and Uli Hacksell to its Board, aiming to strengthen the company’s position in the developing of specialist oncology therapeutics.

In addition, Dong-A ST Co., Ltd (170900: Korea SE), the Korean pharmaceutical company and one of Beactica’s collaborators, has become a shareholder in Beactica.

Two new Directors

The two new Directors of the Board bring a wealth of leadership experience within the life science and pharmaceuticals industry to Beactica according to the company. Walldén has led the global launch of several new technologies, and successfully established, developed and floated various companies during his 30 years in the life sciences. His executive management experience includes roles with Gyros AB, Affibody AB, Biacore International AB, Pyrosequencing AB, PerSeptive Biosystems Inc., and Pharmacia among others.

Hacksell has over 20 years’ experience of international management from both large pharma and small biotech companies, with recent CEO positions at two NASDAQ-listed companies: Cerecor Inc. and ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. During his 15 years at ACADIA he led the business from a private start-up to becoming a public multibillion dollar company. Dr Hacksell previously held senior executive positions at Astra AB (now Astra Zeneca), including president of one of Astra’s largest R&D subsidiaries, Astra Draco. He has also had several Board positions in diverse organisations including Index Pharmaceuticals AB, the Swedish Medical Products Agency and Uppsala University.

“We are delighted that Erik and Uli are joining our Board,” said Dr Per Källblad, CEO of Beactica. “Each brings extensive industry experience that will be extremely valuable in helping to take Beactica to the next stage in our strategic aim – to become a leading international drug discovery company. We are also very pleased with the success of our recent funding round, along with Dong-A ST’s new shareholding, which recognise the important potential that our drug discovery platform has for the industry.”

Further advance its own pipeline

The recently completed financing round, which attracted new investments for the company through a private share issue, will allow Beactica to further advance its own internal pipeline of discovery-stage oncology programmes. Beactica’s new relationship with Dong-A ST builds on the multi-year collaboration and licensing agreement, announced by the two companies in October 2016, for the joint development of novel anti-cancer drugs.

Photo of Erik Walldén and Uli Hacksell