Hofseth Biocare ASA: HBC HIRES EX DKSH SENIOR EXECUTIVE DR TANJA SCHAFFER, TO HEAD UP ITS GLOBAL INGREDIENTS BUSINESS AND AS CEO OF HBC SWITZERLAND GMBH

HBC is delighted to announce the hiring of Dr Tanja Schaffer as Executive Vice President for HBC’s Global Ingredients division and as CEO of HBC's new Swiss subsidiary HBC Switzerland GmbH.

The setup in Switzerland is in line with HBC's international strategy, with Switzerland being widely recognized as a major biotech and life science hub. A presence in Switzerland will benefit HBC's partnerships with leading global players based in the country as well as enable HBC to offer talents and experienced professionals’ opportunities to engage with HBC outside of Norway.

The operations of HBC Switzerland GmbH will initially deliver services to HBC related to marketing, sales and organization development, and HBC is delighted that Dr. Schaffer will assume the position of CEO and lead the build-up of the operations in HBC Switzerland next to the development of the global ingredients business.

Dr Schaffer is a highly accomplished commercial leader with over 15 years’ experience at taking scientific ingredients to market. She began her career as Head of the Scientific Department of Lipoid GmbH after attaining her PhD in Physical Chemistry at the University of Regensburg in Germany. Following this, she joined AllessaChemie as a business development manager and then was swiftly promoted to Director of Marketing and Business Development before joining DKSH in 2011. For the last seven years she has held the position of VP of Global Pharmaceuticals Industry within DKSH, where she was responsible for 26 sales teams globally, four sourcing teams and several applications laboratories. Of note she was also responsible for the Animal nutrition line with the Performance materials division of DKSH as well as nutraceuticals in various Asian markets. As such, she brings a wealth of both technical know-how and commercial knowledge and relationships to help grow HBC’s business.

Dr Tanja Schaffer says: “I am very happy to join the great team of Hofseth Biocare and getting the opportunity to further develop the market for HBC’s innovative, sustainable and science-based products. I am looking very much forward to being part of the dynamic team and to bring HBC´s science to market. I believe the product have enormous market potential to be sold globally across multiple channels in both food applications and medical nutrition.“

Dr Schaffer’s leadership is now part of a wider strategy to commercialise and grow the branded ingredients business, strategically located in Switzerland, geographically located in the centre of Europe and a global capital for life-sciences, food, and ingredients. The there is a huge potential to develop the sales of sustainable human grade ingredients in multiple categories including clinical nutrition, women’s health and fertility, GI health and sports nutrition. Unique and natural anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effect are now all the more desirable after the Covid-19 pandemic and future work will continue to show the product differentiation HBC processes. Shifting sales from the commoditised animal feed markets towards the much higher value human and pet supplement market will gather apace in 2022.

HBC has been targeted in its recruitment for best-in-class human talent from global leading companies in pharma and nutraceutical businesses to support its strategy. DKSH itself is a major part of a specialised distributor B2B strategy with HBC to help give it global reach to brands it would not otherwise touch. Dr Schaffer’s addition will also help catalyse this existing relationship even more.

Roger Hofseth says: “Hiring Tanja Schaffer is an extraordinary opportunity for HBC, and we are delighted to have her onboard. Hiring a senior leader directly from one of the world’s leading global ingredients market expansion teams, with such specialised product knowledge and sales experience is testament to the opportunity that HBC offers its customers. She will not only help develop our own brand formulations and provide deeper technical expertise but also focused on selling unique health claims with a second to none sustainability profile. Her deep understanding of what Ingredient customers are looking for will help grow our sales and further strength a close relationship with DKSH itself, which is itself purely focused on opening markets in Asia for us. Her position will also help catalyse the excellent partnership with IMCD in Europe and the Americas to expand our reach globally.”

For further information, please contact:
James Berger CCO at Hofseth BioCare ASA
Phone: +41 79 950 1034
E-mail: [email protected]

About Hofseth BioCare ASA:
HBC is a Norwegian biotech company that develops high-value ingredients and finished products currently targeting the consumer health market. Research is ongoing to identify the individual elements within the products that modulate inflammation and the immune response with pre-clinical studies in multiple clinics and university research labs in several countries. Lead clinical and pre-clinical candidates are in development for the protection of the Gastro-Intestinal (GI) system against inflammation, including ulcerative colitis and the orphan condition necrotising enterocolitis, as a Medical Food to help treat age-related Sarcopenia, and as a treatment for Iron Deficiency Anemia, all using peptide fractions of Salmon Protein Hydrolysate. Preclinical trial work with the oil is ongoing to ameliorate lung inflammation in eosinophilic asthma and COPD ("smoker's lung") as well as clinical work in COVID.

The company is founded on the core values of sustainability and optimal utilization of natural resources. Through an innovative hydrolysis technology, HBC can preserve the quality of lipids, proteins and calcium from fresh salmon off-cuts.

Hofseth BioCare's headquarters are in Ålesund, Norway with branches in Oslo, London, Zürich, Chicago, Mumbai, Palo Alto and Tokyo. HBC is listed on Oslo Stock Exchange with ticker "HBC". More information about Hofseth BioCare at www.hofsethbiocare.com

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act