– USA, NY – Anavex Life Sciences Corp. (OTCQX:AVXL), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing drug candidates to treat Alzheimer’s disease, other central nervous system (CNS) diseases, pain, and various types of cancer, today announced the appointment of Steffen Thomas, PhD, to its Board of Directors. Dr. Thomas has 15 years of experience in intellectual property, patent law and proprietary technology rights as well as significant expertise in small molecule pharmaceuticals.
Dr. Thomas is currently a patent attorney, European patent attorney and European trademark attorney at Epping Hermann Fischer, a major European intellectual property law firm. Previously, he worked for Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, the largest pharmaceutical company in Asia and a top firm worldwide, as an in-house patent attorney. Prior to that, he worked for Nycomed Pharma, which was acquired by Takeda in 2011 for approximately USD $10 billion.
Dr. Thomas’ legal practice covers drafting of patent applications, prosecuting patent applications before national and international patent offices, defending and challenging patents in opposition, appeal, and nullity proceedings, enforcing patents before the infringement courts, and preparing opinions on patentability and infringement in the technical field of chemistry.
“We are pleased to welcome Dr. Thomas to our Board,” said Christopher U. Missling, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer of Anavex. “We believe Dr. Thomas’ expertise in intellectual property as well as his pharmaceutical industry insight will be extremely beneficial as we are advancing our pipeline.”
Dr. Thomas holds MS and PhD degrees in Chemistry from the University of Munich.
About Anavex Life Sciences Corp.
Anavex Life Sciences Corp. (OTCQX:AVXL) is a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of novel drug candidates to treat central nervous system (CNS) diseases and various types of cancer. Anavex’s lead drug candidates, ANAVEX 2-73 and ANAVEX PLUS, the combination of ANAVEX 2-73 and donepezil (Aricept®), are currently in a Phase 2a clinical trial for Alzheimer’s disease. ANAVEX 2-73 is an orally available drug candidate that targets sigma-1 and muscarinic receptors and successfully completed Phase 1 with a clean data profile. Preclinical studies demonstrated its potential to halt and/or reverse the course of Alzheimer’s disease. It has also exhibited anticonvulsant, anti-amnesic, neuroprotective and anti-depressant properties in convulsive epileptic animal models, indicating its potential to treat additional CNS disorders, including epilepsy and others. The drug combination ANAVEX PLUS produced up to 80% greater reversal of memory loss in Alzheimer’s disease models versus when the drugs were used individually.
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