Biohit Oyj - Changes board/management/auditors

Changes to Biohit Oyj’s management

Biohit Oyj  Stock exchange release      17.4.2012     11.00 am


Panu Hendolin, PhD (molecular medicine), born in 1971, was appointed Head of
Research and Development at Biohit Oyj as of 17 April 2012. Hendolin worked at
Biohit as Research Manager and Head of Research and Development from 2007 to
2008. Previously, Hendolin worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the A. I.
Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences at the University of Eastern Finland,
in several product development and managerial positions at Jurilab Oy Ltd and
for the last three and a half years as the Technical Manager responsible for
product development at Danaher Corporation's Innotrac Diagnostics. 

Lea Paloheimo, PhD (clinical biochemistry), born in 1951, was appointed Head of
Development at Biohit Oyj as of 17 April 2012. Paloheimo has worked at Biohit
since 2001. Before her career at Biohit, Paloheimo worked as a Chemist at
Huslab, Sales Manager at Dasico A/S in Denmark, Researcher at Orion Diagnostica
(Orion Corporation) and as a Chemist at the Clinical Chemistry department of
United Laboratories Ltd. She carried out her PhD and postdoctoral research at
the University of Copenhagen. 

 Irene Hernberg, BA (English Language)(b. 1973) has been appointed
Communications Manager at Biohit Oyj as of 2 May 2012. Previously, Hernberg has
worked at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland in various
communications-related tasks since 2002 and as Communications Manager in
2009-2012. Before working at VTT, Hernberg worked at AAC Global Oy as Project
Manager and Content Provider. 


Semi Korpela, M.Sc. (Econ.)
CEO, Biohit Group
Tel.: +358 9 773 861
Mobile: +358 40 573 7701
semi.korpela@biohit.fi
BIOHIT HealthCare
Innovating for Health
Cancer Prevention

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About Biohit

Biohit Oyj is a globally operating Finnish biotechnology company established in
1988. Biohit's mission crystallizes in its motto “Innovating for Health”. The
company assumes social responsibility by producing innovations, new
technologies and analysis systems for use in medicine, research institutions
and industry. These products help to promote research and diagnostics, while
improving quality of life by preventing disease, human suffering and financial
loss. Biohit also seeks to innovate and develop the marketing and availability
of its products and services. 

Biohit works with scientific communities to produce new technologies, products
and services based on research results and innovations. These can be used to
develop safe and cost-effective diagnostic tests for the early detection and
prevention of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. (www.biohithealthcare.com
/ International / State of the art GastroPanel and Acetium innovations for the
unmet need). 

In January 2012, sixteen world-leading gastroenterology specialists from eleven
countries proposed in their SJG publication the use of the biomarkers of the
modern GastroPanel test for safe and cost-efficient primary diagnosis and
screening of Helicobacter infection and atrophic gastritis in patients with
stomach discomfort and in asymptomatic patients, as it is neither safe nor
cost-efficient to use the 13C urea breath test for this purpose. In addition,
the authors of the publication state that acetaldehyde generated in an
achlorhydric stomach (a consequence of atrophic gastritis) is a significant
reason for an increased gastric and oesophageal cancer risk.  Acetium capsules
can reduce the amount of cancer-causing acetaldehyde generated in the stomach -
and thus, very likely, they also reduce the cancer risk (SJG: “GastroPanel
biomarkers: Rationale in diagnosis and screening of atrophic gastritis with
stomach-specific plasma biomarkers”, Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology.
2012; 47: 136-147). 

Biohit's products include analysis systems for the prevention and early
diagnosis of gastrointestinal diseases, such as the blood-sample based
GastroPanel examinations for the diagnosis of stomach illnesses and associated
risks, quick tests for the diagnosis of lactose intolerance and H. pylori
infection in connection with gastroscopy, and the ColonView examination for the
early detection of intestinal bleeding that indicates a risk of colorectal
cancer. Acetium reduces the amount of carcinogenic acetaldehyde in an anacidic
stomach. (www.acetium.com/test - reveals acetaldehyde exposure) 

The population is aging and, therefore, the need for safe and cost-efficient
diagnosis and prevention of diseases is strongly increasing. People are
becoming more aware of acetaldehyde and the cancer risks associated with it.
This is expected to substantially increase the interest in the company's
products and services. 

Biohit is headquartered in Helsinki and has a subsidiary in the United Kingdom.
Since 1999, Biohit's Series B share (BIOBV) has been quoted on NASDAQ OMX
Helsinki in the Small cap/Healthcare group
(www.biohithealthcare.com/Investors). 
Read more at www.biohithealthcare.com