AMSTERDAM, January 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Biopharmaceutical Company Kiadis Pharma focused on the development of innovative cell based therapeutics in the field of bone marrow transplantation, announces today the appointment of Dr. Maarten Egeler as Chief Medical Officer (CMO). Dr. Egeler is a global leading pediatric bone marrow transplantation physician and an internationally-recognized authority in pediatric hemato-oncology. He brings to Kiadis Pharma over more than 20 years of expertise in this field.

The appointment of Dr. Egeler is an important milestone in the development of Kiadis Pharma's lead product ATIR(TM) as a revolutionary approach to provide safe and potentially life-saving mismatched bone marrow transplantations as a treatment option for end-stage leukemia patients. Dr. Egeler's appointment will strongly support the upcoming multi-center pivotal study on ATIR(TM) early 2009.

Dr. Egeler will join Kiadis Pharma part time next to his position as Head of the Pediatric Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplantation division of the University of Leiden. As Kiadis Pharma's CMO, he will oversee all medical affairs of the company and he will work closely with the company's global network of key opinion leaders in the transplantation community on the development of the company's products.

Maarten has been acting as a medical advisor for Kiadis Pharma over the last year and we are very pleased that he agreed to become our CMO, says Manja Bouman, CEO of Kiadis Pharma. The depth of his medical expertise in the field of bone marrow transplantations, his leadership worldwide in haplo-identical transplantation and his network with key opinion leaders in the field will greatly contribute to the success of our products and company.

I am very excited to join Kiadis Pharma in the role of CMO. I look forward to participate in the development of its programs. I am particularly excited to work on the ATIR(TM) product, which is aimed at preventing acute Graft versus Host Disease and thus enables severe mismatched bone marrow transplantation (so-called 'haplo-identical transplantation') and is entering a pivotal study in early 2009, says Maarten Egeler. I am confident that my background in this field within the pediatric setting will be valuable for the company.

For the complete press release please go to: http://www.kiadis.com/news

English release is provided by Kiadis Pharma. Equivalent translations are from a third party.

For more information please contact: Kiadis Pharma B.V. Eefje Simpelaar Director Communications Email: e.simpelaar@kiadis.com Tel: +31-20-3140250 Mob: +31-6-10829344

For more information please contact: Kiadis Pharma B.V., Eefje Simpelaar, Director Communications, Email: e.simpelaar@kiadis.com, Tel: +31-20-3140250, Mob: +31-6-10829344