GHENT, Belgium, 18 November 2014 - Ablynx[Euronext Brussels: ABLX] today announced the appointment of Johan Heylen as Chief Commercial Officer. Mr Heylen will assume responsibility for all Ablynx's commercial activities. He has more than 20 years of experience in global biopharmaceutical sales, marketing and business development at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Servier and Wyeth.

Most recently, Mr Heylen was Executive Director, Global Commercial Lead, Cancer Immunotherapeutics, at GSK, where he headed the global commercial teams and was responsible for the development and implementation of the launch strategy for GSK's cancer immunotherapeutics portfolio. Prior to that, Mr Heylen led and launched the successful global commercial and marketing efforts for three of GSK's paediatric vaccines, Rotarix®, Priorix® and Varilix®, which together achieved sales of more than €1.5 billion. He has experience in a wide range of therapeutic fields.

Welcoming Mr Heylen to the team, Dr Edwin Moses, CEO of Ablynx, said:

"Johan joins Ablynx as Chief Commercial Officer at an important stage in our development as a biopharmaceutical company. His extensive commercial experience with some of the world's leading companies will help Ablynx to maximise the potential of our pipeline as our programmes move through the clinic and towards the market. He will also bring valuable expertise to our business development team as we seek to develop our relationships with pharmaceutical companies around the world."

Commenting on his appointment, Mr Heylen added:

"Ablynx has an extraordinary pipeline of products based on its unique Nanobody® discovery platform, validated by an impressive list of partners. I look forward to working with the first-class team to support the company as it moves to the next stage of development and begins to anticipate the commercialisation of the first Nanobody-based therapeutics."

About Ablynx

Ablynx:
http://www.ablynx.com/ is a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development of Nanobodies®:
http://www.ablynx.com/en/research-development/nanobody-technology/understanding-nanobodies/, proprietary therapeutic proteins based on single-domain antibody fragments, which combine the advantages of conventional antibody drugs with some of the features of small-molecule drugs. Ablynx is dedicated to creating new medicines which will make a real difference to society. Today, the Company has more than 30 proprietary and partnered programmes:
http://www.ablynx.com/en/research-development/pipeline/ in development in therapeutic areas including inflammation, haematology, oncology and respiratory disease. The Company has collaborations and significant partnerships with pharmaceutical companies including AbbVie, Boehringer Ingelheim, Merck & Co, Merck Serono and Novartis. The Company is headquartered in Ghent, Belgium. More information can be found on www.ablynx.com:
http://www.ablynx.com.

For more information, please contact

Ablynx:

Dr Edwin Moses
CEO
t:   +32 (0)9 262 00 07
m: +44 (0)7771 954 193 /
     +32 (0)473 39 50 68
e:  edwin.moses@ablynx.com:
mailto:edwin.moses@ablynx.com

Marieke Vermeersch
Associate Director Investor Relations
t:   +32 (0)9 262 00 82
m: +32 (0)479 49 06 03
e:  marieke.vermeersch@ablynx.com:
mailto:marieke.vermeersch@ablynx.com%20
Follow us on Twitter @AblynxABLX

Ablynx media relations Consilium Strategic Communications:

Mary-Jane Elliott, Amber Bielecka, Lindsey Neville
t:   +44 203 709 5700
e:  ablynx@consilium-comms.com:
mailto:ablynx@consilium-comms.com


pdf format of the press release:
http://hugin.info/137912/R/1872112/659062.pdf


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Source: Ablynx via Globenewswire
HUG#1872112