Christian Hansen A/S : Lukas Schüpbach appointed CEO of Bacthera

Chr. Hansen and Lonza's 50/50 joint venture for Live Biotherapeutic Products (LBP), Bacthera, announces Lukas Schüpbach as the company's CEO

The Board of Directors of Bacthera AG has today appointed Lukas Schüpbach as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) as of February 1, 2020. Lukas Schüpbach (50) comes from a position as global head of Strategy and Operations at Emavant Solutions, was co-founder of Innojection and has previously held senior leadership positions at Syngenta and Novartis. He holds a master's degree in Business from the University of Basel and a master's degree in Economics from the HEC in Lausanne.

CEO of Chr. Hansen and Chairman of the Board at Bacthera, Mauricio Graber says: 'Lukas comes with a proven track record of delivering results and visionary leadership. Bacthera gets a CEO with a rounded profile, from an entrepreneurial mindset to building and aligning cross functional teams in large organizations. I am convinced his pharma experience, and extensive network, will be very valuable for Bacthera's growth plans and the company's ambition to be a pioneer in the emerging live-biotherapeutic market.'

Lukas Schüpbach says: 'Leading Bacthera on the exciting journey that the company has embarked on is a great opportunity. Bacthera is a pioneer in an emerging industry and I am excited, yet humble, about becoming part of this venture. The nature of the company allows me to combine my experience from the life-sciences industry and the biotech start up scene, contributing to ultimately realize Bacthera's strong purpose of bringing life-changing treatments to patients. I really look forward to getting to know the business in depth, meeting the dedicated employees and starting to engage with companies innovating in this field.'

Bacthera's interim CEO, Christian Bigum continues as acting CEO until Lukas Schüpbach takes up his new position on February 1, 2020. Christian Bigum comments: 'Lukas and I have already planned a solid transition that will ensure full alignment on Bacthera's strategy and priorities while maintaining the strong business momentum we have right now. I am pleased to handover the torch to Lukas - he is not only a strong business builder and charismatic leader, but also sincerely inspired by Bacthera's purpose of shaping the future of medicine.'

About Bacthera:

• Bacthera - a combination of the words bacteriology, therapeutics and era - is a 50/50 legally controlled joint venture between Chr. Hansen and Lonza.
• The company operates from its headquarters in Basel, Switzerland and has production facilities in Denmark and Switzerland.
• Bacthera aims to pioneer manufacturing for the live biotherapeutic products (LBP) industry and offers customers leading competences in handling, characterizing, formulating, manufacturing and encapsulating strict anaerobe bacteria into a drug.
• Bacthera is the first CDMO globally to provide a full supply chain offering manufacturing of drug substance and drug product for biotech and pharma customers.

Chr. Hansen is a leading, global bioscience company that develops natural ingredient solutions for the food, nutritional, pharmaceutical and agricultural industries. We develop and produce cultures, enzymes, probiotics and natural colors for a rich variety of foods, confectionery, beverages, dietary supplements and even animal feed and plant protection. Our product innovation is based on more than 30,000 microbial strains - we like to refer to them as 'good bacteria'. Our solutions enable food manufacturers to produce more with less - while also reducing the use of chemicals and other synthetic additives - which make our products highly relevant in today's world. Sustainability is an integral part of Chr. Hansen's vision to improve food and health. In 2019 Chr. Hansen was ranked as the world's most sustainable company by Corporate Knights thanks to our strong sustainability efforts and our many collaborative partnerships with our customers. We have been delivering value to our partners - and, ultimately, end consumers worldwide - for over 140 years. We are proud that more than one billion people consume products containing our natural ingredients every day. Revenue in the 2017/18 financial year was EUR 1,097 million. Chr. Hansen was founded in 1874 and is listed on Nasdaq Copenhagen.