Take us through your professional career up to date.
After my PhD, I joined Serono International in Geneva (now part of Merck KGA) in Drug Development and Regulatory Affairs in the therapeutic fields of Growth, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Disease.
I then started my entrepreneurial career by co-founding Eugenex Biotechnologies (Tägerwilen, TG,) and Selexis S.A. (Geneva) in Switzerland, development companies offering cell lines for the biopharmaceutical industry, for which I was co-recipient of the 2000 deVigier Entrepreneur prize for the creation of “Selexis”.
I then joined Siegfried, a leading international contract manufacturing organization as an intrapreneur and President of the Biologics Division. There, I built up a biological development and manufacturing business from scratch, with one out-licensed product being the first biosimilar product being registered in Europe. The profitable business was later divested to Avesthagen-Cipla.
After that, I joined Kuros Biosurgery AG (Zurich, Switzerland), a drug and medical device development company as Director of Technology and Operations overseeing the development of six partnered programs up to Phase IIb with Baxter International, in the field of bone and wound healing as well as the development of medical devices for tissue healing. Kuros Biosciences is a listed company at the Swiss stock exchange.
Most recently I was President & CEO of ChromaCon AG (Zurich, Switzerland), an innovator in bioprocessing and continuous manufacturing.
How did you become the CEO of ChromaCon?
The story about ChromaCon is a funny one as it was a complete coincidence. There was a parcel that was addressed to me but landed on the desk of the former CEO of ChromaCon. He was interested to learn about my background and hired me to his Board. After some time, the CEO decided to leave for private reasons and I took over the CEO and Chairman roles, grew the company and sold it last year to YMC Corporation, a Japanese firm.
ChromaCon is based on an invention from ETH on continuous based processing. Industrial production technologies start with a batch approach which is not very productive. Everything that can run continuously is more productive. The switch from batch to continuous occurred in many industries but in biopharmaceutical it is slowly growing with new technologies like what ChromaCon developed.
In a highly regulated industry, new inventions are difficult to implement due to regulatory constraints. We now see big major players such as BMS and Novo Nordisk implementing this technology. We also developed and industrialized unique continuous processes that are needed for the efficient purification of modified RNA, increasingly used as therapeutics replacing proteins.
We had one patent from ETH Zurich from the founding Lab. With a portfolio of 56 patents in the end, we developed and manufactured benchtop to production scale chromatography equipment and sold this through a worldwide partnering network, finally emerging as the number one in bioprocessing. Even better, we were cash positive for 3 consecutive years, with strong growth, before we sold the company to YMC.
Possible failure is intrinsic to risk taking. Success is the exception, but luck strikes the prepared mind and you should never be discouraged of failure.
You have seen so much in your career. What has been some of the highlights so far?
Scientifically the highlight was entry into the high-end biological research that I did in Israel. After completing my studies in chemical engineering with a focus on biotechnology, I was keen to continue doing research in this emerging field and found a chance to apply for a master’s program in Biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science where my then girlfriend (now wife) was doing research.
That environment was amazing with more than 150 professors fighting for getting just 30 students into their labs. The level of scientific advancement in molecular biology was much higher at that time than in Europe, as most lecturers had significant research experience from top labs in the USA, where Molecular Biology was invented.
In my industrial career, the time at Serono was very priming to see the emerging industrialization of biotechnology and to see how recombinant therapeutic products are developed and manufactured.
Another priming moment was later at ChromaCon when we also did a lot of R&D which was not directly related to the core technologies and the core business. We won two Eurostars grants for developing immunology/oncology products in collaboration with an academic immunology lab in Paris where we developed beta peptidic checkpoint inhibitors and antibody-drug conjugate like molecules, a very hot topic in I/O at the moment.
The core technology on creating beta peptide libraries in water (synthetic fermentation) was developed at ETH Zurich and we licensed this technology for use in various fields, including I/O. Pharma companies were interested in collaboration and we were in discussion with two major players, but then ChromaCon was sold and we returned the license back to ETH.
In summary, the highlights in my industrial career were following the biotechnology industry developing into maturity and actually then seeing how biotechnological products are getting gradually replaced, i.e. protein therapeutics to RNA therapeutics. This is mostly apparent these days seeing the emergence of COVID RNA vaccines competing with standard peptide/protein-based vaccines.
Best and worst parts of being a CEO?
The best part is when you get the reward at the end. But that is a very tiny moment.
The worst part is when you struggle to keep the company going and you have so many challenges including the responsibility for your co-workers. In a way it is interesting and challenging, but your private life may suffer, your friendships may suffer.
I don’t know any CEO that is not sacrificing something to get to where they want to be. You have to have a certain character trait to be able to deal with cutting some parts of your life in order to deal with other parts.
What is your view on failure?
Possible failure is intrinsic to risk taking. My view on failure is that you always have the possibility to then start something new and be successful.
It’s not something you need to take personally as there are so many reasons one can fail. Failure is the norm and not the exception. Success is the exception, but luck strikes the prepared mind and you should never be discouraged of failure.
Who or what has shaped who you are?
Personally, my family, my wife and some very good friends.
Professionally, my supervisor in Israel was certainly a key element in shaping the way I think. The way scientists approach things in Israel is very different than in Europe. They are fast thinkers, although they can sometimes be quite rude. When I came to Switzerland, everything slowed down, but people were much nicer to each other. I enjoyed both impressions.
Secondly, the Head of R&D that gave me a chance to build the venture at Siegfried was a very interesting person too. He put a lot of trust and enthusiasm into that project supporting me whenever he could, and I was very grateful to him.