Dutch biotechnology company Mucosis B.V. announced today that Dr. Barry Buckland was elected to its Supervisory Board. Dr Buckland brings extensive experience in vaccine design and development.

From 1996 to 2009, Dr. Buckland was Vice President, BioProcess R&D at Merck & Co, Inc. He built the unit and was responsible for process development for 14 new commercial products, including 10 new vaccines. More recently Dr Buckland has been a consultant to Hilleman Laboratories, the vaccine venture established between Merck and The Wellcome Trust. Dr Buckland received many professional and academic honors, including the 2008 Marvin Johnson Award from the American Chemical Society for lifetime contribution to biotechnology. He has authored 77 scientific papers.

"I am delighted to have this opportunity to contribute to the success of Mucosis" commented Dr. Buckland. "The Company's mucosal immunity platform will have many applications in developing superior vaccines".  

John Lambert, Chairman of Mucosis added: "Barry's insight and experience stem from being involved in the design, development and commercialization of many of today's blockbuster vaccines. He will be invaluable to Mucosis".

About Mucosis - www.mucosis.com
Mucosis B.V. is a Dutch biotechnology company that has developed a proprietary vaccine platform technology, Mimopath^TM , on which it develops mucosal vaccines with improved efficacy. Mucosis's lead products are FluGEM^TM, a vaccine to prevent influenza, and PneuGEM^TM, a vaccine preventing diseases caused by pneumococcal bacteria. Mimopath^TM -based vaccines can be administered needle-free in the nose and mouth, evoking a more natural immune response with a broader base of protection.

About Mimopath^TM technology
Mucosis's Mimopath^TM technology is based on Lactococcus lactis, a safe bacterium commonly used in the food industry. Mucosis has developed a robust technique to formulate the L. lactis bacteria into non-living bacterium-like particles (BLPs) that can be loaded with antigens from viral, bacterial, parasitic or tumor origin. The antigen-covered BLPs form a vaccine that can be delivered into the nose or mouth, without the need for a needle. These vaccines raise protective immunity by activation of both the innate and the adaptive immune system.