Overview

iOmx Therapeutics focuses on the development of first-in-class cancer immunotherapies addressing novel immune evasion biologies hijacked by cancer cells. By utilizing its iOTargTM high-throughput screening platform, the Company has identified a number of next-generation immune-checkpoints and is advancing a clinical pipeline of drug candidates against these novel targets that have the potential to address cancers that are resistant to current immunotherapies.

iOmx was founded in 2016 based on the work of its scientific founders Philipp Beckhove, MD, and Nisit Khandelwal, PhD, conducted at the German Cancer Research Center.

Management

Apollon Papadimitriou

Apollon is the Chief Executive Officer. Apollon acted as Chief Development Officer at iOmx from 2017 until mid of 2019. He has a long-standing track record in biotherapeutics development and has significantly contributed to the development and launch of many biologics products. Before joining iOmx in 2017, he acted as Global Head Large Molecule Bioanalytical R&D and Pharmaceutical Sciences Site Head at Roche Innovation Center Munich. During his career at Roche, starting in 1997, Apollon held several leadership positions in Biologics R&D within Pharma Research and Early Development and has been a key contributor to the foundation, build-up and the evolution of Roche´s global large molecule research organization and pipeline. Apollon is a biologist by training and earned his PhD in Biochemistry in 1995 from the Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg, Germany. After a post-doctorate at the Institute for Experimental Cancer Research in Freiburg, Germany, he started his industrial career at Boehringer Mannheim in 1996 as a Senior Scientist in Biotechnology Research.

Nils Debus

Nils serves as the Chief Business Officer. He brings 27 years of industry experience, primarily in business development and licensing. Nils previously held the CBO position at OSE Immunotherapeutics (Paris, France), focusing on innovative treatments for immuno-oncology and autoimmune disorders. At Boehringer Ingelheim, he spent 9 years in BD&L roles with a focus on Biosimilars, strategic transactions and alliance management, handling R&D pipeline and commercialization deals as well as patent negotiations. Nils is a microbiologist by training. Following his PhD in embryonic stem cell research from Humboldt University (Berlin, Germany), he began his industry career at Schering AG (now Bayer) in Berlin in 1996, leading a diagnostic imaging research team. In 2001, he joined the BD&L team for 10 years, including a 5 years stay in the US bay area. Later he served as VP of BD at Merz Pharmaceuticals (Frankfurt, Germany). Nils also received training in corporate finance from Duke University (Durham, NC).

Florian Schmid

Florian serves as the Chief Financial Officer. He has more than 20 years of finance leadership experience in public biopharmaceutical, technology and consulting businesses. Florian joined iOmx from Vivoryon Therapeutics N.V. (EURONEXT: VVY) where he served as chief financial officer from 2021. Before joining Vivoryon, Florian worked at InflaRx N.V. (NASDAQ: IFRX) as Finance Director from 2017. At InflaRx and Vivoryon he participated in various corporate finance transactions, including a Nasdaq IPO and follow-on rounds. He started his professional career as a Certified Public Accountant at Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young. After that he managed various finance functions at Deutsche Telekom for about six years. In addition to his professional certifications, Florian holds a degree in business economics from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany.

Hannes Loferer

Hannes serves as the Chief Operations Officer and has 25 years of industry experience with emphasis on oncology drug development. Prior to joining iOmx in 2018, he held the position of Vice President and Head of Project Management at Sotio (Prague, Czech Republic), where he was instrumental in moving several early-stage assets towards clinical development. Prior to that, Hannes held positions with increasing responsibility in several biotech companies overseeing development stage projects in oncology, which covered first-in-human programs, Phase II and pivotal-stage programs preparing for first marketing authorization. Following his PhD in Microbiology at the ETH Zürich Switzerland in 1994 and a term as an EMBO Fellow at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, Hannes started his industry career at Glaxo Wellcome (now GSK) in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1997.

Christine Rothe

Christine is the Chief Development Officer. Christine has a long-standing track record in discovery and preclinical development of drug candidates in various formats and disease areas. Before joining iOmx, she served as VP Early-Stage Project Leadership & Data Science and before as VP Discovery & Alliance Management at Pieris Pharmaceuticals. During her 12- year tenure at Pieris, Christine played a major role in shaping the drug discovery process and bringing bispecifics in immuno-oncology as well as inhalable biologics in respiratory from the start of the program towards the clinic. Christine started her industry career at MorphoSys and spent 13 years in various positions in R&D and Alliance Management, where she was responsible for technology development as well as therapeutic antibody project teams. Christine is a biologist by training and received her Ph.D. in cell biology from the University of Regensburg, Germany. Before joining industry, she held a research position at the University of Regensburg.

Murray Yule

Murray is the Chief Medical Officer of iOmx. He is a United Kingdom trained and board-certified medical oncologist who has worked in the European pharma industry for almost 20 years, planning and delivering clinical trials across the EU, US and Asia. Prior to joining the industry he worked at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Whilst at Eisai, Murray played a pivotal role in the successful licensing of Halven for the treatment of advanced breast cancer and liposarcoma. Immediately prior to joining iOmx, Murray worked on the FDA approval of Tafasitamab for the treatment of Non Hodgkins Lymphoma at MorphoSys AG. Murray has been a member of the Scientific Boards of Adcendo and Almac Discovery and has deep experience across a wide range of therapeutic approaches in the treatment of cancer from small molecules to cellular therapy. He has extensive experience in partnering within the pharma industry and successfully listed Xynomic on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

Supervisory Board

Gerald H. Moeller, Chairman of the Supervisory Board

Dr. Gerald Moeller has more than 40 years of management experience in the diagnostic, pharmaceutical and MedTech industries. From May 2002 to April 2014 he was an Investment Advisor to HBM Partners, Zug/Switzerland. As an active participant in the international healthcare / biotechnology sector Dr. Moeller served on the board of companies such as Bionostics Inc (Director), BRAHMS AG (Chairman); Definiens AG (Chairman); Febit AG (Chairman); Genticel SA (ViceChairman), Ikonisys Inc (Director); Illumina Inc (Director); MTM Laboratories AG (Chairman); Invendo-Medical GmbH (Chairman); Pelikan Inc (Chairman); PowderJect Pharmaceuticals Plc (Chairman); Strakan Ltd (Chairman); Vivacta Ltd (Director) and Sugen Inc (Director). Sugen Inc, PowderJect Plc; MTM Laboratories AG, BRAHMS AG, Vivacta Ltd, Bionostics Inc, Definiens AG and Invendo-Medical GmbH were successfully sold to large global HealthCare companies.

From 2003 to 2016 Dr Moeller also served as Chairman of FIND (Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics), a PDP with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In May 2018 Dr Moeller resigned from the Board of Directors of Morphosys AG after 19 years of Service as Chairman. Today he serves on the Board of

4Sigma GmbH,Germany (Chairman); (Healthcare Services)
Sphingotec GmbH, Germany (ViceChairman)
4teen4 GmbH, Germany, (Director)
DIADEM DX, Italy, (Chairman)

Dr Möller cofounded Adrenomed AG, a Biopharmaceutical company, served as Vice Chairman, from 12/17 to 8/19 as CEO and since 12/19 as Director. From 1975-1998, Dr. Moeller held several senior level positions in Germany, Japan, USA and the Netherlands with Boehringer Mannheim, including: Head of R&D Diagnostics; President of Decentralized Diagnostics; CEO of Boehringer Mannheim Therapeutics; and Chief Technology Officer of Corange, the holding company of Boehringer Mannheim. In 1995 he became CEO of the worldwide Boehringer Mannheim Group, which generated sales of >$4 billion in 1997. Following the sale of Boehringer Mannheim Group to Roche in 1998, Dr. Moeller was named Head of Global Development and Strategic Marketing Pharmaceuticals, as well as a member of Roche’s Executive Committee. Dr. Moeller left Roche in December 1998. Dr. Moeller received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Kiel, Germany. He is married with 2 children.

Henrijette Richter, Vice-chairwoman

Henrijette Richter is one of the Managing Partners and an active member of the Capital Funds team, the flagship fund dedicated to early-stage biotechs and MedTechs, at Sofinnova Partners, Paris. She joined Sofinnova in 2014, and her investments and board involvements include Mozart Therapeutics, Muna Therapeutics, Nitrase Therapeutics, Nodthera, Twentyeight-Seven Therapeutics, Asceneuron, Delinia (sold to Celgene), and iOmx Therapeutics. Henrijette was attracted by Sofinnova Partners’ focus on a positive, consensus-oriented environment and its philosophy of investing in people.
Prior to Sofinnova, Henrijette was part of the team that founded Novo Seeds in 2007, and as an Investment Director, she was instrumental in the creation, financing and building of companies such as Orphazyme (ORPHA.CO; ORPH), Avilex Pharma, EpiTherapeutics (sold to Gilead), and Lysogene (LYS, Euronext Paris). Henrijette holds a combined Ph.D. and Industrial Scientist degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Copenhagen and Novo Nordisk A/S. She did her postdoctoral fellowship at the MIT Center for Cancer Research in Massachusetts.

Dr. Matthias Kromayer

Matthias Kromayer is Managing Partner at MIG Capital. He leads MIG’s activities in the Life Sciences and has been involved in the exits of several biotech companies as well as in three IPOs, of which two at Nasdaq.
Prior to MIG, Matthias was Managing Partner with a strategic consultancy in the Life Sciences sector. In addition, he has own entrepreneurial experience building and running several companies within and outside of the Life Sciences sector. Previously, he was Senior Consultant with an international top management consultancy.
Matthias received training in Biology and Chemistry at Munich University, King’s College London, UK, and Lund Universitet, Sweden, and holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Microbiology from Munich University. He is Alumnus and member of the selection committee of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes.

Rainer Strohmenger

Rainer Strohmenger is a Managing Partner at Wellington Partners and one of Europe’s most experienced venture capitalists in Life Sciences. His more than 22 years of investment activity have involved financing of some of the most successful European biotech, medtech, diagnostics and healthcare IT companies. In the late 1990s he co-managed Wellington’s investment in Swiss biotech player Actelion, which became the most successful venture-backed biopharmaceutical company in Europe and was acquired in 2017 by Johnson & Johnson for US$ 30 billion. He was also responsible for the investments in Definiens (acquired by Medimmune), Genkyotex (NYSE Euronext: GKTX), Grandis (acquired by Novartis), immatics (NASDAQ: IMTX), invendo medical (acquired by Ambu), mtm laboratories (acquired by Roche), NoemaLife (acquired by Dedalus), Oxford Immunotec (NASDAQ: OXFD) and Wavelight (acquired by Alcon). Prior to joining Wellington Partners, Rainer was involved in medical research with a primary focus on cardiovascular physiology and in research on health economics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany. Rainer holds a M.D. in medicine as well as a M.Sc. in economics, both from Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany, and was trained at the Entrepreneurship Center of the MIT, Boston, USA. He is a Member of the VC Council at InvestEurope and a Member of the Senate at the German Association of Small and Medium-sized Businesses (BVMW).

Michael Burgess

Dr. Michael Burgess has served as Head of Research and Development at SpringWorks Therapeutics since May 2021. Mike previously served as President of Research and Development at Turnstone Biologics from October 2017 to May 2021 and is currently the Executive Director of its Board. Mike is a recognized senior leader in the pharmaceutical industry with over 20 years of drug research and development experience. Prior to joining Turnstone, he led strategy and execution of translational medicine, early-stage clinical trials and clinical pharmacology across all therapeutic areas, including oncology at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Prior to this at Roche Pharmaceuticals, Mike held several senior leadership positions, including acting global head of Roche Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) and Senior Vice President and Global Head of Oncology Research and Early Development. Before joining Roche, Mike spent 7 years at Lilly working on early stage oncology trials. Mike has also served as a member of the board of Synlogic Therapeutics (also served on the audit committee) since March 2020 and since March 2021 has served as a member of the portfolio committee for the Experimental Drug Development Center in Singapore. Mike received his medical degree (M.B., Ch.B.) and a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Bristol, UK and spent 10 years as a practicing physician in pediatrics and pediatric oncology.

Rainer Kramer

Rainer Kramer joined iOmx’ board of directors in June 2022. Rainer Kramer has almost three decades of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry and is currently Chief Business Officer of Immatics, a leading TCR therapeutics company (NASDAQ: IMTX), where he is responsible for corporate business development and strategic alliances. During his career, Rainer has delivered numerous strategic partnerships and license deals encompassing technology and product deals as well as equity transactions with an aggregate value of more than $6 billion. Rainer has worked in research, business and corporate functions with increasing responsibilities at Amgen Inc., MorphoSys AG, Jerini AG, Shire PLC and Signature Diagnostics AG. Rainer Kramer holds a diploma in molecular biology and a Ph.D. from the Max-Planck-Institute for Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany.

Scientific Advisory Board

iOmx will be supported by a high-profile team of reputed international scientists in the field of oncology, immunotherapy and clinical drug development who will serve on its Scientific Advisory Board (to be announced soon).

Philipp Beckhove, Chair of the Scientific Board

Philipp Beckhove, M.D., Ph.D., is the Director of Regensburg Center of Interventional Immunology (RCI) at University of Regensburg, Germany. As tumor immunologist, Philipp's scientific work focuses on translating basic immunological research into new therapies for oncology. Prior to joining RCI in 2015, Philipp headed the Division of Translational Immunology at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Germany from 2011-2015. He specialized in internal medicine at the University of Heidelberg in 2009. As of 2009, Philipp also holds an adjunct Associate Professorship of Immunotherapy at the Comprehensive Cancer Center, Northwestern University, Chicago, U.S.A.

Patrick A. Baeuerle

Patrick A. Baeuerle, Ph.D., joined MPM in 2015. Patrick is responsible for the development of BiTE antibody Blincyto® (blinatumomab; AMG 103) which was approved within three months by the US FDA for therapy of relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He also spearheaded the development of the BiTE technology, the industry- leading T-cell engaging antibody platform.

Prior to joining MPM, Patrick served as Vice President, Research, and General Manager, Amgen Research (Munich) GmbH, where he oversaw translational science as well as BiTE development. From 1998-2012, Patrick served as Chief Scientific Officer for Micromet, Inc., and earlier oversaw drug discovery at Tularik Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company acquired by Amgen (AMGN). He also served as Professor and Chairman of Biochemistry and Molecular Biochemistry at the Medical Faculty of Freiburg University, Germany, and did seminal research on transcription factor NF-kappaB at the Gene Center in Martinsried, Germany.

Patrick was rated Germany’s most frequently cited biomedical scientist of the decade (1990-1999), and among the top 50 worldwide (1990-1997). A recipient of numerous awards, he holds a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Munich, and performed post-doctoral research with Dr. David Baltimore at the Whitehead Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also an Honorary Professor of Immunology of the Medical Faculty at Munich University.

Frances Balkwill

Frances Balkwill, OBE, FMedSci, is Professor of Cancer Biology at Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London. She is especially interested in translating knowledge of cancer biology into new biological treatments for cancer. Much of her work focuses on the tumour microenvironment of ovarian cancer. After publishing a multi-level profile of the human ovarian cancer microenvironment, her lab developed a platform of new mouse models as well as human multi-cellular tissue culture models. They are now using these to research biological therapies that may prevent relapse and increase patient survival.

Fran is Director of the Centre of the Cell, a biomedical science centre for children, educational website and outreach project in East London. There have been more than 230,000 participants in Centre of the Cell activities since opening in September 2009. Together with illustrator Mic Rolph, Fran has also produced thirteen science books for children on cell and molecular biology with titles such as Enjoy Your Cells, The Egg and Sperm Raceand You, Me and HIV. These books have been translated into at least twelve foreign languages with over half a million copies sold worldwide.

Fran serves on CRUK and ERC grant committees. She is a Trustee of the charity Blood Cancer UK and chairs the Research Advisory Committee of Prostate Cancer UK.