Neurologist and Psychiatrist Prof. Johannes Rolf Streffer, MD Joins AC Immune SA as Chief Medical Officer

Prof. Streffer is an established authority on neuroscience and biomarker modalities

Appointment reaffirms AC Immune’s scientific leadership in neurodegeneration

LAUSANNE, Switzerland, Nov. 18, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AC Immune SA (NASDAQ: ACIU), a Swiss-based, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a broad pipeline focused on neurodegenerative diseases, today announced that Prof. Johannes R. Streffer, an authority on neurology and psychiatry, was hired as the Company’s Chief Medical Officer, and he is expected to join the Company in January 2021.

Prof. Streffer joins AC Immune from UCB Biopharma SPRL where he currently holds the position of Vice President, Head of Translational Medicine Neuroscience. His expertise will further accelerate AC Immune’s progress in advancing its pipeline of therapies targeting neurodegenerative diseases.

Prof. Andrea Pfeifer, CEO of AC Immune SA, commented: “We welcome Prof. Streffer’s timely appointment, as his understanding of biomarkers and experience of clinical study design in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and particularly preclinical AD, will positively impact AC Immune’s discovery efforts. His appointment is a further affirmation of our scientific leadership in the neurodegenerative disease field. Prof. Streffer’s significant expertise and standing in the scientific and medical community will be an invaluable asset as we work to develop innovative treatments for neurodegenerative diseases using our proprietary technology platforms.”

Prof. Streffer commented: “I am humbled and proud to be invited to join AC Immune, an established pioneer at the forefront of discovering and developing treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. It is tremendously exciting to be involved at the cutting edge of research addressing an area with such a high unmet medical need and where my work on clinical studies and understanding early biomarkers in Alzheimer’s could play a critically important role. The existing and developing pipeline of AC Immune is very impressive. I look forward to working with the outstanding team at AC Immune and hope my own expertise will contribute to their continued success.”

At UCB Prof. Streffer led the development of a translational space in neuroscience, integrating clinical and biomarker sciences. Prior to this he was a member of the Alzheimer Disease Area Leadership Team at Janssen, Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. Here he gained experience in early experimental AD trials, including biomolecular modalities such as positron emission tomography (PET), volumetric and functional MRI, genetics, cognition and cerebrospinal fluid markers. As a member of the Experimental Medicine group and as leader of the Janssen BACE inhibitor (BACEi) program targeting Alzheimer’s Disease he initiated a number of methodological and biomarker studies focusing on early diagnosis and translation. Prof. Streffer was also the industrial lead for European Medical Information Framework (EMIF)-AD. In the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI)-EMIF program researchers from 14 countries combined in a EUR 56 million project to integrate a wide variety of AD data cohorts to foster understanding of early biomarkers and change in the predementia AD spectrum.