PharmaTelevision - Christian Zahnd explains The exceptional potency and target specificity of DARPins

PharmaTelevision requires Javascript enabled and Adobe Flash Player to watch our programmes. If you do not have Flash installed, you can download it for free from the Adobe Flash homepage.

Improve your Internet experience and start watching exciting new video content.

Video title: Christian Zahnd explains The exceptional potency and target specificity of DARPins

Visitors: You are watching a 5 minute preview.

Get more information and subscribe now

RSS

Twitter

In This Episode:

Summary
Transcript
Participants
Company

In this episode of PharmaTelevision News Review, Fintan Walton talks to Christian Zahnd, CEO of Molecular Partners.

Full video transcripts are available with PharmaTelevision Premium Content. Click here to buy a subscription or sign up for a 14 day free trial.

Origins of Molecular Partners

Fintan Walton:

Hello and welcome to PharmaTelevision News Review here in Munich at BIO-Europe 2010. On this show I have Christian Zahnd , who is the CEO of a company called Molecular Partners based in Zurich, welcome to the show.

Christian Zahnd :

Thank you.

Fintan Walton:

Christian Zahnd , Molecular Partners as I said it's a company based in Switzerland, you have some unique technology we were gonna talk about that, but could you tell us little bit about the origins of the company and who your investors are?

Christian Zahnd :

Absolutely, Molecular Partners has been spun out of the University of Zurich so it's a typical academic start up spin out and it came out of a technology which has been developed by the group of 00:01:00 the co-founders of Morphosys an antibody focused company based in the Munich. And the technology that we were developing there was basically based on a DARPin technology and that's has been taken out of university late 2004 until since the company has been around. And the company went through the first diluted financing rounds and with Venture Capital coming in mid 2007 and the company has raised 18.5 million Swiss Francs and by a syndicate led by Index Ventures there was also our investors in that syndicate namely Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, and BB Biotech, and Endeavour. And the company went on with the cash actually to the current day and however we did a series B financing round almost a year ago December 2009 and when a company raised another 45 million US dollars from a syndicate led by Essex Woodlands and all the existing investors also participated in that round, so the current investors of us are Essex Woodlands, Index Ventures, Johnson & Johnson, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation and BB Biotech, Endeavour.

Fintan Walton:

Okay, so there you've got an enthusiastic group of Venture Capitalist behind you?

Full video transcripts are available with PharmaTelevision Premium Content. Click here to buy a subscription or sign up for a 14 day free trial.

Fintan Walton

Dr Fintan Walton is the Founder and CEO of PharmaVentures . After completing his doctoral research on the genetics of cell proliferation at the University of Michigan(US)and Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland), Dr Walton gained broad commercial experience in biotechnology in management positions at Bass and Celltech plc (1982-1992).

Christian Zahnd

Chief Executive Officer

Christian Zahnd , is Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors of Molecular Partners. After graduating with a Master of Science degree from the ETH Zurich he worked for Merrill Lynch. Christian Zahnd then earned his PhD from the University of Zurich. His research focused on antibodies and antibody fragments, which he studied independently and through academic and industry collaborations. Christian co-founded Molecular Partners to expand his pioneering research on the therapeutic applications of DARPins. He has been a member of the Company's management team since its foundation.

PharmaVentures

PharmaVentures is a corporate finance and transactions advisory firm that has served hundreds of clients worldwide in relation to their strategic deal making in the pharmaceutical, life science and healthcare sectors. Our key offerings include: Transactions / deal negotiations; Product / technology valuations; Deal term advice; Due diligence & expert reports; Strategy formulation; Alliance management; and Expert opinion for litigation/arbitration cases. PharmaVentures provides the global expertise to ensure our clients generate the highest possible return on investment from all their deal making activities. We have experience of all therapeutic areas and can offer advice on both product and technology commercialisation.

Molecular Partners

Molecular Partners is a privately owned biopharmaceutical company, located in Zurich, Switzerland, that is pioneering the development of a novel class of targeted proteintherapeutic termed DARPins. DARPins are as target specific and potent as monoclonal antibodies. Yet, being small proteins, they overcome the known limitations of conventional protein -based therapeutic approaches. Molecular Partners addresses real medical needs and develop cutting-edge medicine based on innovative DARPin products. The DARPin platform has rapidly generated a differentiated pipeline of drug candidates. The most advanced DARPin is MP0112, an inhibitor of VEGF, which is in Phase I/IIa development. Further products are in research and preclinical development. Molecular Partners balance their internal drug development efforts with strategic alliances with renowned pharmaceutical companies. Molecular Partners is backed by a very strong international syndicate of institutional and corporate investors.