PharmaTelevision - Borean Pharma: Novel Protein Technology Opens Doors to Danish Biotech Company

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Video title: Borean Pharma: Novel Protein Technology Opens Doors to Danish Biotech Company

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In this exclusive interview, Fintan Walton talks to Johanna Holldack, CEO of Borean Pharma. The conversation begins with a discussion on the unique aspects of Borean's proprietary technology, including its scaffold library, which is derived from a human protein, and whose compounds possess features that facilitate the process of their development. Johanna then discusses Borean's current strategy of developing its lead molecules for entry into clinical trials in 2009. The 2006 product acquisition deal between Borean and F. Hoffmann-La Roche is also discussed, and Johanna explains why Roche may have been interested in acquiring one of Borean's lead candidates. The interview then turns towards the state of the biotech industry in Denmark, and how this is backed by innovative research, especially in the field of protein engineering, that is taking place in the Denmark's research institutes and universities. The importance of international investors to small biotech companies is covered, and the interview concludes with Johanna's speculation on whether the company will undergo an IPO or an acquisition.

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Borean Pharma's technology platform based on antibody analogs.

Fintan Walton:

Hello and welcome to PharmaVentures Business review here live at Bio in Boston. On this show I have Johanna Holldack, CEO of Borean Pharma you are based in Denmark. Welcome to the show.

Johanna Holldack:

Yes. Thank you very much.

Fintan Walton:

Borean is a Danish biotech company and it has, it's got a specific type of technology or a drug platform I suppose which is based on antibody analogs. Would you Jonanna tell us a little bit about that technology and how it differentiates to other companies attempts to come up with antibody analogs?

Johanna Holldack:

Okay, the technology is based on the human molecule which is Tetranectin and what you do is, what we did in the past, we took the molecule and changed to that random that we build a whole library with 10 times 00.01.18 different molecules and now we screen this library and identify the compounds that we want to develop any further. What differentiates us from other Scaffold companies is the fact that it's a human protein which is important when you think about immunogenecity and they are --

Fintan Walton:

It's natural human protein?

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Johanna Holldack

CEO

Dr Johanna Holldack is CEO of Borean Pharma. Her international management track record in Germany, the US, Italy and theNetherlands includes the strategic selection and evaluation of R&D projects, global project management, the establishment of regulatory and quality assessment procedures, and the preparation of a product launch in the US. In addition, she has extensive business experience in organizational design, budgeting, strategic planning, M&A and IPO execution for a major German biotech firm. Dr Johanna Holldack's previous posts included Chief Operating Officer at Borean, Chief Operations Officer at MediGene in Munich, Germany, and Vice President Global Vaccines and Therapeutics at Chiron, in Emeryville, US. Before entering the pharmaceutical industry, Dr Holldack spent more than a decade as Research Associate and Assistant Professor in Paediatrics and Paediatric oncology and haematology at the Universities in Essen and Freiburg, Germany, as well as at the Harvard Medical School in the US. Dr Holldackwas awarded the research fellowship of Deutsche Krebshilfe at the Harvard Medical School in the US. She studied medicine at the Georg-August-University in Gottingen, Germany where she earned her MD.

Borean Pharma

Borean Pharma is a Danish drug discovery and development company focused on recombinant protein technology. The company's technology platform has the potential for design, development and production of a new generation of pharmaceutical protein products. The advantage of Borean's protein products is that they have a straightforward modular structure that is easy to reconfigure. In contrast, traditional antibody molecules have a complicated structure and low design flexibility, and are costly to produce on an industrial scale. The company's antibody-analogues are based on naturally occurring human proteins, and therefore have a lower risk of immunogenicity. The two main components of Borean's technology platform are its CTLD (C-type lectin domain) library technology and a trimerisation technology. In addition, the company has a broad set of supporting tools that cover key elements from research to product development, including the cost-efficient Escherischia coli-based production of final products. Borean Pharma has one lead product in preclinical development for rheumatoid arthritis, and has ongoing research programmes addressing additional opportunities in the general area of cancer and immune disorders.