Hansa Biopharma appoints Dr. Magnus Korsgren

Hansa Biopharma, the pioneer in immunomodulatory enzyme technology for rare IgG mediated diseases, today announces the appointment of Magnus Korsgren, M.D., Ph.D. as Vice President and Head of Research and Development.

Dr Korsgren will lead the efforts to advance Hansa Biopharma’s pipeline of drug candidates for rare immunologic diseases based on the Company’s proprietary IgG-cleaving enzyme technology platform. Hansa’s lead asset, imlifidase, received conditional approval under the brand name Idefirix®(imlifidase) in the European Union in August 2020 for desensitization treatment of highly sensitized kidney transplant patients. Imlifidase is also currently being investigated at clinical stage for 3 additional indications: treatment of anti-glomerular basement membrane (anti-GBM) antibody disease, Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) and antibody-mediated kidney transplant rejection (AMR) post kidney transplantation. Hansa also has pre-clinical programs in gene therapy and cancer and is developing a next generation of enzymes, NiceR.

“Magnus Korsgren’s extensive international experience in translational medicine and drug development will be highly valuable for our continued efforts to build a pipeline of drug candidates within transplantation, autoimmune diseases and beyond”, said Christian Kjellman, Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Operating Officer.

Dr. Korsgren has a long and extensive background from the life science industry and academia in both preclinical and clinical drug development, with particular focus on immunological mechanisms in inflammatory airway diseases, oncology and cardiovascular medicine. He brings more than 15 years’ experience from leadership positions in a variety of pharmaceutical and biotech companies, including Ferring, AstraZeneca, BioInvent and Novartis.

Dr. Korsgren is board certified in Clinical Pharmacology and has published more than 30 original articles, reviews and book chapters.

“I am very excited to join the highly innovative team at Hansa Biopharma”, said Dr Korsgren. “This is a great opportunity for me to help Hansa pioneer the next wave of research into its enzyme cleaving technology platform and to bring novel therapies from the laboratory to the patients with rare immunological diseases.”

Magnus Korsgren will take up his new role on 1st of April this year.

PR Newswire