New production manager for Active Biotech

1/10/2000 9:18 AM EST

Börje Haag has been appointed production manager at Active Biotech AB and

will be taking up his position in February being based at SBL Vaccin in
Solna, Sweden. He is presently Vice President, Production at Pharmacia &
Upjohn's Strängnäs factory, employing the use of biotechnology in
pharmaceutical production and has held production positions at a number of
other companies, including ASTRA.


The appointment of Börje Haag secures for Active Biotech the competence
required to meet our current and future international production
requirements.


Recently, in October, an investment of SEK 30 million was made in SBL's
production plants in order to ensure sufficient production capacity in
preparation for the launch of the ETEC vaccine. SBL's new Cholera Vaccine,
which is the only WHO approved cholera vaccine in the world, is also
manufactured in the same production plant. The vaccine is marketed in
Sweden and Norway as a travel vaccine under the Dukoral brand name and is
also approved in these countries for the ETEC indication, tourist
diarrhoea. Sales of Dukoral in Sweden have increased by greater than 80%
in the past year.

The new production plant for SBL's IPV polio vaccine is currently
producing the final validation batches before commencing full commercial
production next year. The annual capacity is estimated to be approximately
7 million doses.

Lund, Sweden, 22 December 1999

Active Biotech AB (publ)
Sven Andréasson
President and CEO

Active Biotech AB is a Swedish biotechnology group focused on the research
and development of pharmaceuticals and vaccines; our core competence being
our knowledge of the human immune system. We have a high quality project
portfolio and considerable financial resources. Important products include
our Cholera vaccine, a vaccine against tourist diarrhoea (ETEC) and
innovative drugs against MS (SAIK). The turnover of Active Biotech was SEK
259 million in 1998.

Active Biotech AB
Box 724, SE-220 07 Lund, Sweden
Tel: +46 (0)46-19 20 00
Fax: +46 (0)46-19 20 50
e-mail: