Adrenomed Supervisory Board appoints Jens Schneider-Mergener as CEO and Jens Zimmermann, CMO, joins the Executive Board

Hennigsdorf/Berlin (Germany), August 29, 2019 – Adrenomed AG, the vascular integrity company, announced today that its Supervisory Board has appointed two new members of the Executive Board. Dr. Jens Schneider-Mergener is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) effective August 1, 2019 and Dr. Jens Zimmerman, Chief Medical Officer, joined the Executive Board effective July 1, 2019. Dr. Schneider-Mergener will succeed Dr. Gerald Möller, who is designated to join Adrenomed’s Supervisory Board.

Dr. Schneider-Mergener brings more than 25 years of experience in the biotechnology industry, with a proven track record of successfully transforming a research-stage biotech business into a fully-integrated pharmaceutical company. Previously, he was CEO and founder of Jerini AG, a biotechnology company specializing in life-threatening and rare disease therapies.

Bernd Wegener, PhD, Chairman of Adrenomed’s Supervisory Board, said: “We are delighted to welcome Jens Schneider-Mergener as CEO of Adrenomed. Jens brings a proven track record in corporate and drug development and is highly regarded for his leadership skills and business management experience. We are also happy to announce that Chief Medical Officer Jens Zimmermann joined the Executive Board.

On behalf of the entire Supervisory Board, I would like to express our sincere thanks to Dr. Gerald Möller for his great commitment and hard work with Adrenomed. Under his leadership, Adrenomed achieved important steps, including significant financings with renowned investors Wellington and HBM. We will be delighted to have Gerry join our Supervisory Board.” Dr. Gerald Möller said: “My time heading up our Company was extremely exciting. The progress Adrenomed made, especially in the AdrenOSS-2 Phase II clinical trial to treat patients with early septic shock, is exceptional. I am looking forward to the trial results expected in early 2020.”

Dr. Schneider-Mergener, CEO of Adrenomed AG, said: “This is an immense opportunity to help Adrenomed at this vital time. With Adrecizumab, a first-in-class antibody to preserve vascular integrity, Adrenomed is perusing an innovative and logical rationale to fight vascular leakage in septic shock and other life-threatening diseases with a high unmet medical need. I very much look forward to working with the whole team to create new treatment options for critically ill patients.”

Jens Schneider-Mergener co-founded 3B Pharmaceuticals (Berlin, Germany) and Phavaris B.V. (Leiden, The Netherlands). He was founder and CEO of Kusala Foundation (Berlin) in 2009 supporting projects in mental research. He also has been mentor to start-up companies where he applied his experience of coaching individuals at the executive level. Prior to this, he acted as CEO of Jerini AG (Berlin), a pharmaceutical company which he had founded in 1994. He led Jerini through several financing rounds and took the company public in 2005 raising € 120 Mio. After EMEA approval of its lead product Firazyr^TM (icatibant) he led the acquisition of Jerini by Shire plc in 2008. In 2018, Firazyr^TM generated € 700 Mio. in revenues. Dr. Schneider-Mergener studied Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Bielefeld and at Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich where he received his doctorate. He worked as post-doctoral scientist at the California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA) where he discovered the HIV-1 protease. From 1990 to 2001, he acted as a research group leader and Professor for Biochemistry at the Medical Faculty Charité (Berlin).

Jens Zimmermann, MD, now a member of the Executive Board, has served as Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and as a member of Adrenomed’s senior management team since 2017. Prior to this, he was Medical Director at Vanda Pharmaceuticals and held senior medical positions at Roche, InterMune, Pfizer, Shire, Jerini and Berlin-Chemie. “In my new position as a member of the Executive Board I feel strongly committed to promote the clinical development of our lead molecule Adrecizumab for the treatment of septic shock”, Dr. Zimmermann said.

“With Professor Schneider-Mergener, Dr. Zimmermann and our Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Andreas Bergmann, we have an excellent fit for Adrenomed’s strategic development and a significant near-term inflection point with the upcoming AdrenOSS-2 Phase II data,” said Dr. Bernd Wegener, Chairman of the Adrenomed Supervisory Board.

About Adrenomed
Adrenomed AG is a German privately financed, clinical stage biopharmaceutical company. Adrenomed´s mission is to rescue vascular integrity in order to save the lives of critically ill patients with limited treatment options. Founded in 2009 by a management team with decades of in-depth experience in sepsis and deep knowledge in diagnostics and drug development, the Company’s lead product candidate Adrecizumab is a clinical-stage, first-in-class monoclonal antibody. Adrecizumab targets the vasoprotective peptide Adrenomedullin, an essential regulator of vascular integrity. Adrecizumab is currently under clinical evaluation in a biomarker-guided, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, randomized, multicenter proof-of-concept Phase II study with 300 patients suffering septic shock. Excellent safety and tolerability were demonstrated in two Phase I trials. www.adrenomed.com