Leiden, The Netherlands, April 10, 2001 - Crucell N.V. (NASDAQ: CRXL; EAX Amsterdam: CRXL), a leading biotechnology company focused on the discovery of unique drug targets on disease associated cells and on the development of huMADE(TM) biopharmaceuticals, today announced that it has appointed Arthur Lahr as Executive Director of Business Development for its antibody business.

Mr. Lahr will be responsible for the commercialisation of Crucell’s antibody products that are derived from its MAbstract(TM) target discovery and antibody phage display technology. Mr. Lahr joins Crucell after having worked for more than six years at McKinsey & Company in both Amsterdam and New York, where among other things, he set up and supported business development for start up companies. Through his work at McKinsey, he has gained extensive experience in the healthcare, technology and banking industries. Prior to working at McKinsey, Mr. Lahr worked as an engineer at Unilever. He has a background in Applied Physics through his degree at Delft University of Technology, and holds an MBA from INSEAD at Fontainebleau.

Dinko Valerio, President and Chief Executive Officer for Crucell commented: “We are pleased to welcome Arthur to Crucell. His experience and skills will give a boost to our commercial antibody related activities, which were only started last summer. This area of research is very important to us, as it offers tremendous opportunities for the discovery of new drug targets and antibody based products that we can commercialise.”

About Crucell
Crucell is a leading biotechnology company focused on the discovery of unique drug targets on diseased cells and on the development of huMADE(TM) biopharmaceuticals. Crucell’s two broadly applicable human technology platforms form the basis for this. The first is a human cell line expression platform, PER.C6(TM), on which a wide range of biopharmaceuticals can be developed and manufactured, such as vaccines, antibodies, therapeutic proteins and gene therapy products. The second technology is called MAbstract(TM), a set of tools based on phage antibody-display libraries and proprietary subtraction and selection technology, to discover novel drug targets and develop human monoclonal antibodies as therapeutics for a variety of diseases.


Crucell makes its technologies available under exclusive or non-exclusive license agreements, and has currently signed 16 agreements with major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for its PER.C6(TM) technology. Crucell focuses on the development of therapeutics for treatment of cancer, inflammatory diseases and for the prevention and treatment of influenza and other infectious diseases.

Crucell currently employs approximately 130 people in its facilities in Leiden, Utrecht and Leuven (Belgium).

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve inherent risks and uncertainties. We have identified certain important factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in such forward-looking statements. See our Registration Statement, as filed on Form F-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on October 26, 2000, (the "Registration Statement") and the section of the Registration Statement entitled "Risk Factors."

Director of Business Development