Starting with any relevant education, walk me through the twists and turns of your career to date? How did one opportunity lead to the next + what was the key takeaway/ experience in each role + how did this lead you to where you are now)?
I am a chemist and my PhD thesis at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Plank Society in Berlin was broadly speaking material science. In one way or the other my R&D was always involving the analysis and fine tuning of materials at the interface of bioscience and material science. After four years as Post-doc at the IMS in Japan and a researcher at the Institute of Christal Growth in Berlin I held positions as Senior Scientific Manager in Business Development and Marketing for Mitsui &Co and as manager for quality assurance in semiconductor, automotive and pharmaceutical companies.
In 2002 I developed a business plan of a Berlin facility to bridge the gap between industry and academic nanotech research for Mitsui & Co. In a sense 10 years later my company is doing exactly that, with a focus on veterinary drug development.
What was the pivotal moment that put you on your current founder path?
I was working as head of quality assurance in a life science start-up that had just been acquired by a larger international organisation. That organisation had great products but an exceptionally bad working climate. I decided that it must be possible to build a profitable company where staff should enjoy working – so I decided to build my own.
Can you provide a quick summary of the technology/ area of innovation and its potential application?
We license in nanotech platforms from academic institutions, upscale them and create drug products – generica-plus with less side effects and higher bioavailability. We offer formulation development services but also create own products for licensing.
One of our key products: we created a non-addictive opiod which is better than morphine to combat opioid crisis.
For the vetmed market we develop nanotech based depot and transdermal formulations.
What stage are you at?
Pre-clinics and approaching Phase I next year. We are now fundraising for Phase II clinical trials and for the development of a long-acting depot formulation for cats. We have also built a small GMP production facility for clinical trial samples for semi-solids.
Discuss the biggest challenges of getting to this point? With the benefit of hindsight, what would you have done differently if anything?
The biggest challenge is meeting regulatory requirements on a shoe-string budget. In hindsight we should have invested earlier in outside expertise for regulatory experts when we finalized our first dossier.
How have you approached funding?
We used family & friend´s money and leveraged that with public research funding. Partnering with prospective distributors in the vetmed field is the second source of income.
Have there been any pivot points in the company’s lifetime? What triggered these? Has the value proposition changed
In the beginning we planned to outsource production, but our sell our products directly. Now we insourced production, but will out-licence technology and sell via partners only.
We have included products for the human market and acquired public funding which includes funding for a Phase I study. For this we plan a spin-off, the main company will keep its focus on vet-med and R&D, acting as CDMO for its spin-offs.
What has been the greatest source of help/ guidance along the way?
Collaborations with our academic partners. Research groups who supported us by sharing staff positions on joint R&D projects. Also the Freie University Berlin who provided us laboratory space at low cost.
Best advice you’d pass on to other founders?
Be persistent. Maintain a vision why you do it, a greater goal.
What do you think are broadly the biggest needs and opportunities in the Animal Health and Petcare markets?
The biggest opportunities would be addressing the emerging markets. The biggest medical needs is to tare care of the aging cat. We address this with our new nutraceutical to treat chronic kidney disease where we are currently looking for partners: distributors and companies on the lookout for a game changing supplement.
What’s going to have the single biggest impact on change in your area of the market?
We focus on companion animals. The biggest game changers will be pet inshurance versus the larger veterinary hospital chains.
What do the next two years have in store for you?
Entering the feed supplement market and first market approval for a transdermal drug for cats – the first to use our DendroSol® transdermal nanocarriers. We are offering this technology to other clients and are eager to meet and discuss mutual opportunities with various stake-holders.
