Vivacta says it is set to further strengthen its position in the point of care diagnostics market through two new appointments its board of directors
Rolf Classon, who joins Vivacta as chairman, and Werner Schafer, who comes in as a non-executive director, will help Vivacta in realising the full potential of its innovative piezofilm sensor technology to revolutionise point of care testing.
With these new additions to the board, the company's management team will be better placed to identify the opportunities and strategic paths that will yield the greatest commercial value.
In announcing the new appointments, Neil Butler, CEO of Vivacta commented, "We are delighted that Rolf Classon and Werner Schafer have agreed to join our board.
"Increasing competition within the diagnostics sector makes it vital that we have a full and comprehensive understanding of the market.
"Between them, they have not only run global activities for major diagnostics businesses, such as Roche and Bayer, but also acquired an excellent understanding of the industry across Europe and the USA, which look likely to be key markets for our technology".
Classon moved to Bayer Diagnostics in 1991 and had become the president of the company by the end of 1995.
In 2002, he was appointed chairman of the executive committee at Bayer Healthcare, a $10billion subsidiary of Bayer.
"I am very excited by the new prospects and opportunities at Vivacta", said Classon.
"I believe its new technology has great potential to improve point of care solutions.
"All strategic options are all open to us at this time and that makes it a great challenge".
Previously, Schafer was president of the lab systems business unit at Roche, with sales of $1.5billion and a headcount of over 2000, making it one of the largest global diagnostics businesses.
Speaking about his move to Vivacta, Schafer said, "I was attracted by the opportunity for this new technology to challenge the established methods of diagnosis and to help facilitate the growth we are now seeing in point of care solutions."
