Stockholm, 5 November 2026
AAX Biotech AB, a developer of enabling technologies for next-generation antibody therapeutics, today announced the appointment of Sarah Fredriksson, as Chief Executive Officer, effective 1 November 2026. Sarah Fredriksson brings more than 20 years of leadership experience in the life sciences, as founder and CEO of the listed company Genovis and, most recently, as CEO of Aqilion. Co-founder Daniel X Johansson continues as Chief Scientific Officer and member of the Board of Directors. The appointment marks AAX Biotech's transition from technology validation to commercial scale-up. Over the past year, the company's proprietary platforms have been selected for evaluation by global pharmaceutical companies, including Daiichi Sankyo, and are offered to biotech and pharma customers through the company's partner Evitria. These early collaborations provide external validation of the technologies. The next priority is to convert this momentum into partnerships, licensing agreements and business models that generate long-term value.
Sarah Fredriksson joins AAX Biotech from Aqilion, where she served as CEO and built the team behind a drug discovery pipeline of four programs in immunology and inflammation (I&I). She led the company's Series A financing and drove a business development strategy that delivered both in-licensing transaction and a significant preclinical out-licensing and research collaboration agreement. Earlier, she founded Genovis, a provider of enzyme-based tools for the characterization of biologic drugs, and served as its CEO for 16 years, including taking the company public on Nasdaq First North Growth Market. She holds a PhD in protein engineering from Lund Institute of Technology (LTH) and is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA).
“I look forward to continuing to drive our technology development together with Sarah and the team. Being able to focus fully on advancing Opti-mAb® and Seqitope® to the next stage, while gaining a CEO with a proven track record of turning science into partnerships with global pharma, is exactly what the company needs now,” says Daniel X Johansson, co-founder and CSO of AAX Biotech.
“I spent many years close to drug developers struggling to characterize and stabilize complex biologics, so I recognized right away the problem Opti-mAb® solves. Unstable scFv fragments cause aggregation, low expression and costly redesign in bispecific antibodies and CAR-T therapies, and Opti-mAb® addresses this already at the design stage. The interest we already see from global pharma creates clear opportunities for early partnering deals and new business models. I’m proud to join a team that has taken its technologies this far, and I look forward to building the company together, contributing to the next generation of antibody-based therapeutics,” says Sarah Fredriksson, CEO of AAX Biotech.
“With Sarah, we gain a CEO who has made the journey that lies ahead of us, from strong science to company building, financing and licensing deals with global pharma. Her appointment strengthens AAX Biotech in a decisive phase and in our dialogue with investors,” says Svante Ahlmkvist, Chair of the Board of AAX Biotech.
For more information, please contact:
Sarah Fredriksson, CEO
sarah.fredriksson@aaxbiotech.com
+46 70 261 4575
Daniel X Johansson, CSO
daniel.johanson@aaxbiotech.com
+46 70 490 24 33
About AAX Biotech AB
AAX Biotech AB is a biotech company specializing in next-generation antibody therapeutics. The company offers two unique and proprietary technologies, Seqitope® and Opti-mAb®, that enable high throughput and high-resolution epitope mapping as well as stabilization of single chain variable fragments (scFv) for applications such as bispecific antibodies and CAR-T cells. Both technologies aim to produce better and more effective antibody-based medicines. These innovations position AAX Biotech as a key player in the rapidly growing antibody therapeutics market. AAX Biotech is founded by experts from Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.
Visit aaxbiotech.com to learn more and follow AAX Biotech on LinkedIn.