Strategy for an Anticancer Antibody Therapeutics Company
October 2007
Strategy for an Anticancer Antibody Therapeutics Company
Interview with Rainer Wessel
Strategy for an Anticancer Antibody Therapeutics Company
In this exclusive interview, Fintan Walton talks to Rainer Wessel, CEO of Ganymed Pharma, about the formation of the company and the development of its antibody therapeutics. Dr Wessel discusses the company’s aim of creating products with blockbuster potential that will have an impact on the solid cancer antibody market, and the strategy through which it intends to achieve this. He describes the reasoning behind the April 2004 deal with Genmab in which Ganymed’s GT43 cancer target was out-licensed, as well as the possibility of forming partnerships for the company’s other products once they have shown proof-of-concept in man at Phase II/III, so that value has been created. In addition, Dr Wessel talks about the recent closing of Ganymed’s Series C financing round, plans to float the company in the future, and how acquisition approaches may be considered at some point if the offer is right. Finally, he briefly touches on the current state of biotech in Europe.
About Rainer Wessel
Rainer Wessel, PhD, is CEO of Ganymed Pharma. Before joining Ganymed in March 2004, Dr Wessel served at Axxima Pharmaceuticals as President and CEO. Before that, he was Head of IP and Licensing at Qiagen. Dr Wessel began his industry career at Boehringer Ingelheim, with which he served in Japan and Germany in positions of increasing responsibility. He is a member of the Board of BIO Deutschland, and of the Supervisory Board of ConoGenetix. He also serves as a Senior Advisor to the International Council for the Life Sciences (ICLS) in Washington, DC.
About Ganymed Pharma
Ganymed Pharma is a private biopharmaceutical company developing highly specific and effective monoclonal antibody therapeutics against solid cancers with high medical need and large market potential. Founded in 2001 as a spin-off from the Universities of Mainz and Zurich, the company is located in Mainz, Germany. The discovery engine used by Ganymed is one of the most powerful integrated solutions to building an antibody cancer pipeline in the industry. With a world-leading expertise in pinpointing highly specific proprietary targets, Ganymed is building a growing sustainable pipeline of antibody therapeutics targeting solid cancers with high medical need and large market potential. The company’s scientists have identified truly cancer-specific cell surface targets and have designed highly effective antibodies against them. These ideal antibodies (imAbs) can be designed with maximum tumour-cell killing potential. The antitumour activity of Ganymed’s imAbs is mainly based on their ability to trigger powerful immune effector functions combined with a strong inhibition of cancer cell proliferation.
