Arcis Biotechnology appoints Professor Steve Howell as Non-Executive Chairman

Daresbury, UK, 24 July 2019: Arcis Biotechnology (“Arcis”), the nucleic acid sample preparation solution provider, today announced it has appointed Professor Steve Howell as Non-Executive Chairman of its Board of Directors. Steve takes over the position from Paul Foulger, who was serving as Chairman on an interim basis on behalf of the Board.

Professor Howell has over 20 years’ life science commercialisation experience, supporting companies’ development and profitability. He founded Innova Partnerships in 2006, where he has been instrumental in creating over a dozen life science start-ups and raised in excess of £100m in financing. Steve oversaw the exit of Innova Biosciences in 2016-2017 to SYGNIS AG, Innova Partnerships’ second exit. He has held positions at Unilever plc, and was previously Director of Business Development at Alere Inc. and Research Director at Unipath Ltd. In 2015 he was made Visiting Professor of Commercial Innovation at King’s College, London.

Professor Steve Howell, Non-Executive Chairman, Arcis Biotechnology, commented: “The Arcis sample preparation technology has enormous potential across many application areas, including diagnostics and genetic understanding. I am excited to be joining the team as we build the business to bring products to market that will have real and positive impact on patient quality of life.”

 Paul Foulger, Non-Executive Director, Arcis Biotechnology, said: “We have an exciting opportunity to build a world-leading and highly valuable biotech based on Arcis’ current technology platform and future ambitions. Steve’s considerable experience, expertise and network will make a significant contribution to achieving that goal and delivering maximum value to shareholders.”

 Peter Whitehurst, CEO, Arcis Biotechnology, said: “I would like to thank Paul for his time as interim Chairman, and for working with the Executive Directors to bring Steve in for the next exciting phase of development at Arcis.”

The appointment of Professor Howell as Non-Executive Chairman follows the Company’s recent announcements of strategic distribution and licensing agreements, with Opentrons and Mirnax Biosens respectively. These agreements extend the reach of Arcis’ sample preparation and preservation technology in two areas of the life sciences industry – high throughput sample prep with robotics, and the development of early disease diagnostics.