Small Times - Nanomedicine company Nanobiotix elects former Aventis vice chairman/CFO as its chairman

May 13, 2008 -- Paris, France-based Nanobiotix, an emerging nanomedicine company focused on combining advances in nanotechnology and molecular biology for cancer therapy, says it has elected Patrick Langlois as chairman of its board of directors, effective immediately.

Because Langlois is not an executive manager at Nanobiotix, he is the company's "non-executive director." Since 2005, Langlois has served as a General Partner with PJL CONSEILS, a consulting firm specializing in strategy, corporate development, and M&A activities for healthcare companies. Previously, Langlois was vice chairman of the management board and CFO at Aventis (created by the merger of Rhône-Poulenc and Hoechst), and, prior to that, executive VP and CFO. At Aventis, Langlois was responsible for finance, corporate development, and supervision of the company's dermatology, protein therapeutics, and animal health businesses.

"The addition of such an accomplished industry veteran as Patrick Langlois bears strong testimony to the significant opportunity ahead of Nanobiotix," said Nanobiotix CEO Laurent Levy, Ph.D. "We look forward to reaping the benefits of Patrick's considerable talent and abundant experience related to accessing the capital markets and building strong strategic partnerships."

Because it is designed to target cancer cells for destruction -- leaving healthy cells untouched -- Nanobiotix's nanotechnology-enabled NanoXray platform has the potential to dramatically impact cancer therapy, says Mr. Langlois.

NanoXray is a nanotechnology platform capable of being turned 'on' and 'off' outside the body to selectively treat a variety of cancers safely and noninvasively. Use of nanoXray is intended to resolve radiation therapy's biggest drawback: destruction of healthy tissue and its subsequent deleterious side effects when a high dose of x-ray is necessary. The core of a nanoXray nanoparticle is an inactive and inert substance -- not a drug -- that can subsequently be activated in order to locally (intratumor) increase the dose of x-ray, which is then expected to lead to higher efficiency. After nanoXray nanoparticles accumulate in the target tissues, a standard x-ray is applied that is intended to generate a local therapeutic effect, designed to destroy only the targeted tumor cells. This mechanism suggests total control of the intended therapeutic effect.

Earlier in his career, Langlois was employed by Rhône-Poulenc Group, most recently as CFO and member of the executive committee. In addition to Nanobiotix, Langlois also is a board member of Shire Pharmaceuticals (UK), Scynexis (USA), and Exonhit Therapeutics (France). In addition, Langlois has served as a senior advisor to JP Morgan Healthcare since 2006.

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