The News

Diatos expands its management team

17/04/2003

Diatos SA, a privately held biopharmaceutical company that develops novel therapeutics based on its innovative drug-targeting (TSP) and intracellular-delivery (DPV) technologies, announced today the appointments of Denis Ravel, Ph.D., to the position of Chief R&D Officer, and Sandrine Leonardi to the position of Finance Director. With these appointments Diatos has completed its core management team.

Dr. Ravel brings 18 years of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry with extensive background in preclinical and early clinical development of new drugs in the field of metabolic diseases. Prior to joining Diatos, Dr. Ravel was Director of Pharmaceutical Development at Genset and in charge of the Genset San Diego Research Center. In his position at Genset, he led the preclinical development of Famoxin [APM-1], a recombinant protein with anti-diabetic activities. Prior to joining Genset in 2001, Dr Ravel worked for 16 years at Servier, as Senior Pharmacologist and as Project Manager of preclinical and early clinical Drug Development before being promoted to Head of Department. Dr. Ravel obtained a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France, in 1983.

Sandrine Leonardi joins Diatos from ifrance (a VU group company) where she was Finance Director of the French company and its Spanish subsidiary (iespana). Ms. Leonardi's prior positions include being Finance Controller Europe of Louis Vuitton Malletier and Head of Financial Control for Europe 2 Communication. Ms. Leonardi graduated from HEC, a leading French Business School, Paris, France, in 1992, and obtained a Masters in Political Science from Columbia University, New-York, USA, in 1993.

"We are pleased to have executives with Denis's and Sandrine's experience join our fast-growing company," said Dr John Tchelingerian, President and CEO of Diatos. "Denis's experience in pharmaceutical development will be extremely valuable as we advance our pipeline of therapeutic products through preclinical and clinical development."

Contacts: Diatos
Dr. John Tchelingerian, President and CEO
Tel: +33 1 53 80 93 81
jtchelingerian@diatos.com

About Diatos
Diatos is a privately held biopharmaceutical company that uses its proprietary drug-targeting and intracellular-delivery technologies to develop innovative therapies for cancer and other serious diseases. Diatos has two core technology platforms:

Diatos Peptide Vector (DPV) technology enables or significantly enhances selective cellular or nuclear uptake of a broad range of therapeutic compounds, including small molecules, peptides and proteins, antibodies and antibody fragments, oligonucleotides, and nanospheres.

Tumor Selective Prodrug (TSP) technology enables the release of anti-cancer agents selectively at the sites of tumor cells.

In addition to using these technologies to develop its own product pipeline, Diatos is offering these technologies to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, under licensing or partnering relationships, for the development of a broad range of therapeutic products in various therapeutic fields and for target validation and drug screening.

Founded in 1999 as a spin-off from Institut Pasteur, Diatos has raised to date 23.5 Million Euros. Diatos has a total of 40 employees at its headquarters in Paris, France, and at the campus of Louvain-la-Neuve Université in Louvain, Belgium.