Media release detail page

Allschwil, Switzerland, April 9, 2019

Polyphor appoints Gökhan Batur as Chief Commercial Officer

Polyphor AG (SIX: POLN), a clinical stage, Swiss biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of antibiotics and immuno-oncology compounds today announced the appointment of Gökhan Batur to the newly created position of Chief Commercial Officer (CCO). With over 14 years of healthcare industry experience, he joins the organization from MSD (known as Merck & Co. Inc. in the US and Canada), most recently serving as Executive Director, Global Brand Leader, Antibiotics, working in Switzerland and the US.

Mr. Batur, who joins effective June 3rd, will be responsible for leading all commercial activities, including market preparation for our lead antibiotic murepavadin and our immuno-oncology compound balixafortide. As a member of the executive management he will lead Polyphor's Commercial activities, as well as the Business Development & Licensing team.

"I'm very pleased to welcome Gökhan to Polyphor as we look forward to key milestones in our antibiotic and immuno-oncology programs and continue building our team for the future," says Giacomo Di Nepi, Chief Executive Officer of Polyphor. "Gökhan's deep cross departmental and commercial leadership experience including launching multiple antibiotics in the entire world will be essential as we start the market preparation for our products, and we build the late-stage development and commercial capabilities needed to become a sustainable, multi-product biopharmaceutical company."

Mr. Batur has held positions of increasing responsibility at MSD, most recently serving as Executive Director, Global Brand Leader, Antibiotics responsible for leading the global commercial strategy and execution for the entire Merck antibiotics portfolio managing multiple in-line, launch and pipeline products and sales of ~2 billion dollars. Prior to this role he was Executive Director, Global Brand Leader, Gram Negative Antibiotics. Previous roles at MSD included Executive Director, Hospital Acute Care Franchise for Emerging Markets and China and, before, he held positions both at regional and country level in marketing and sales including regional marketing leader for Hospital Products and Oncology in the EEMEA region. He received his BS in Management Information Systems from Bosphorus University, Istanbul.

For further information please contact:

For Investors:
Kalina Scott
Chief Financial Officer
Polyphor Ltd.
Tel: +41 61 567 16 67
Email: IR@polyphor.com

For Media:
Alexandre Müller
Dynamics Group AG
Tel: +41 43 268 32 31
Email: amu@dynamicsgroup.ch

About Polyphor
Polyphor is a clinical stage, Swiss biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of antibiotics and immuno-oncology compounds. It has discovered and is developing the OMPTA (Outer Membrane Protein Targeting Antibiotics). The OMPTA are potentially the first new class of antibiotics against Gram-negative bacteria to have reached phase III stage in the last 50 years. The company's lead OMPTA, murepavadin, (POL7080) is in Phase III development against Pseudomonas aeruginosa - recognized as a critical priority 1 pathogen by WHO; in addition, Polyphor is developing a pipeline of further preclinical antibiotics based on its OMPTA platform. In addition, Polyphor is developing an immuno-oncology candidate, balixafortide (POL6326), which is starting a Phase III trial in combination with eribulin in patients with advanced breast cancer, and exploring in parallel its potential for further combinations and indications. Polyphor is based in Allschwil near Basel and is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (SIX: POLN). For more information, please visit www.polyphor.com.

Disclaimer
This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on current assumptions and forecasts of the Polyphor management. Known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors could lead to material differences between the forward-looking statements made here and the actual development, in particular Polyphor's results, financial situation, and performance. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only of the date of this communication. Polyphor disclaims any intention or obligation to update and revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.