Antibody Diversity and Precision Signaling matters
in Oncology, Immune-modulation, Immunology and most urgently for Covid-19
Our Goal
We are addressing the urgent need for particular effective treatments for Covid-19 and its potentially fatal outcome driven by Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) and Cytokine Release Syndrome (CRS). Also, significant improvement in clinical outcomes is required for treatment of disorders in acute inflammatory conditions including several severe rare diseases like Macrophage-Activation Syndrome, SJIA / Still’s Disease or IBD and Gout where sometimes even specific treatments are missing, with the goal of addressing underlying causes. The same holds true for clinical outcome in cancer therapy, whether it is through neoadjuvant treatment of women with early Breast Cancer, or via novel immuno-oncology treatments across multiple solid cancers.
Science
We are exploiting the unlimited potential of rabbit monoclonal antibody diversity achieving the most precise and potent canonical inhibitory or agonistic signaling without the need of extensive in vitro maturation or engineering, achieving optimized biological activity and eliminating liabilities
Science
While monoclonal antibody discovery has progressed significantly in the last decades, precise canonical antibodies have not been well exploited to address clinically validated and/or clinical targets in a physiological manner.
IcanoMAB has secured three advanced clinical candidates in IND-enabling stage from MAB Discovery.
Our Portfolio
We have a differentiated monoclonal antibody portfolio with potential to enter clinical development for indications of high unmet medical need soon, including neoadjuvant eBC, immuno-oncology for solid cancers and acute inflammatory conditions incl severe infectious diseases
Portfolio
While collaboration projects were performed, MAD Discovery also developed a pipeline of proprietary molecules. At the end of 2019, a pre-clinical project in the field of Immuno-oncology was licensed to a Top Pharma company. Three advanced clinical candidates in IND-enabling stage have now been secured by IcanoMAB: a HER2newC apoptosis inducer, a CD-40 agonist and an IL-1R7 antagonist.
HER2newC apoptosis inducer – Early Breast Cancer
Clinical unmet need
Antibody based cancer therapies have achieved convincing success rates combining enhanced tumor specificity and reduced side effects in patients. Trastuzumab targets the human epidermal growth factor related receptor 2 (HER2) and is one of the greatest success stories in this field. For decades, trastuzumab based treatment regimens have significantly improved the prognosis of HER2-positive breast cancer patients both in the metastatic and the (neo-) adjuvant setting. Nevertheless, ~50% of trastuzumab treated patients experience disease progression within one year, with a variety of molecular mechanisms having been described.
CD40 agonist – Immuno-Oncology/Severe Infectious Diseases
Clinical unmet need
Response to immuno-oncology treatments is yet to be improved. Along the cancer immunity cycle, the activation of CD40 is a cornerstone, providing a powerful tool to specifically induce neo-antigen-specific T cell immunity against tumor cells. But so far, all CD40 agonists with effective response in patients are associated with severe side effects (e.g. grade 3-4 liver tox, thromboembolic events) or reduced therapeutic window, strongly limiting the potential therapeutic use.
IL-1R7 antagonist – Acute inflammatory diseases
Clinical unmet need
Effective treatments are particularly urgent for Covid-19 and its potentially fatal outcome driven by Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) and subsequent Cytokine Release Syndrome (CRS). While Vaccine development is progressing and sufficient broad population protection is yet to be demonstrated, risks of detrimental effects via Antibody Dependent Enhancement (ADE) will require specific therapeutic intervention. In any case, an effective treatment is urgently needed as an option for clinicians to treat severely affected late-stage Covid-19 patients. Significant improvement of clinical outcome is also required for the treatment of disorders in immunology and inflammation including several severe rare diseases like macrophage-activation syndrome, SJIA / Still’s Disease or IBD and Gout where sometimes even specific treatments are missing, that address the underlying cause.
Our Company
We are a private German Biotech company founded by highly experienced entrepreneurs and senior Pharma industry alumni with a successful track record in drug development collaborating with leading experts and renowned organizations across the world
Company
IcanoMAB is a private Biotech company headquartered in Polling, Germany focusing on the pre-clinical and development of precision canonical antibodies for the treatment of cancer, immune-system- and inflammation-related-diseases and Covid-19. The company is developing its proprietary clinical candidates to exploit novel approaches for improving clinical outcomes in immuno-oncology, solid tumors and immunology and inflammation.
IcanoMAB has secured three clinical candidates in IND-enabling stage and funding from MAB Discovery GmbH, originally generating the licensed antibodies from a novel antibody discovery platform. IcanoMAB will use its proceeds to advance the clinical candidates to allow IND-enabling activities and respective partnering activities with selected third parties.
Our Team
Dr. Stephan Fischer – Founder CEO and CSO
Stephan has more than 30 years Life Science industry experience with Boehringer Mannheim and Roche AG.
He is CEO and Founder of MAB Discovery GmBH, which utilized a unique and proprietary rabbit-based antibody discovery platform to generate various mAbs for several pharma partners and proprietary mAbs prior to the trade sale of its production technology and lab operations to BioNTech (NASDAQ: BNTX) in 2019. He also was Partner of Bioscope Associates LLC from 2009 to 2017. Prior to that, Stephan was SVP, Head Biologics Research and Strategy at Roche until 2009. Previous roles at Roche included the Global Project Lead for Retavase® and NeoRecormon® from Discovery through Commercialisation.
Stephan received a PhD from TU Munich and worked as a PostDoc at EMBL Heidelberg (D)
Daniel Parera, M.D. – Co-Founder
Daniel is an entrepreneur, investor and advisor in the Life Science and Food industry.
He co-founded three companies and previously was an Executive-in-Residence at TVM Capital Life Science in Munich for almost 4 years – amongst reviewing several hundred opportunities a year worldwide, closing a large pre-IPO investment with subsequent IPO, serving on the Board of Directors of three portfolio companies, and as part of new fund raising was instrumental for the first closing with a key European strategic investor.
He had joined TVM from Novartis, where he spent 12 years in various line function roles across three Divisions including Global Franchise Head Strategic Marketing for Immunology & Infectious Diseases, Pharma in Basel, Switzerland, Global Head of Development, Diagnostics for Vaccines & Diagnostics in Emeryville, CA, USA and Global Head New Product & Portfolio Strategy Biopharmaceuticals for Sandoz in Holzkirchen / Munich, Germany. During his tenure, he oversaw and was a team member for multiple collaborations, licensing deals and acquisitions from academic to multi-billion-dollar transactions, world-wide commercial launches and FDA / EMA / CFDA / ANVISA registrations with respective global clinical trials.
Prior to Novartis he was at McKinsey & Company, Inc. in Germany, trained as an MD at Johannes-Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany with clinical training in Germany, Switzerland and the USA (UC Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, CA) and was a scientific co-worker at the Institute for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine in Mainz for several years
Dr. Ulrich Pessara – CO-Founder
Ulrich has broad experience in business and financial transactions in the pharmaceutical and biotech environment and a solid scientific career in immunology/oncology for more than ten years.
He is currently serving as senior consultant with Staatz Business Development & Strategy. Since 2013, he serves as CEO of UP Biotech Management AG based in central Switzerland. From 2004 to 2013, Ulrich was General Partner of JSB Partners LP/USA and was serving as managing director of the subsidiary in Germany and Switzerland being responsible for international partnering- and financing activities for Financial, Pharma and Biotech industries. As member of the Investment Board of the Corporate Finance Holding of the Sächsische Landesbank, Leipzig/Germany, Ulrich was serving in several boards of Germany biotech companies. From 2000 to 2004, he was co-founder and Chief Development Officer of Xantos Biomedicine AG, a Munich based Biotech company, where he was responsible for business development, intellectual property and strategic development.
From 1997-2000, he served as director of program management for international biotech alliances at Hofmann-La Roche. During that time, he was managing director and board member in international joint venture biotech companies in San Diego/USA, Milan/Italy and Hanover/Germany. From 1991-1997, he worked for Boehringer Mannheim where he was responsible for biopharmaceutical drug development with international academic and industrial partners.
He received his MS at the University of Cologne/Germany, his PhD at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg/Germany and held postdoctoral positions at the Universities of Heidelberg/Germany and Strasbourg/France
Scientific collaborations
The IcanoMAB portfolio has been developed to date and is in collaborations
with leading experts and renowned organizations across the world like
- The Dinarello Lab, Department of Medicine, University of Colorado Denver, Aurora, Colorado/USA and Department of Medicine, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen/The Netherlands
- Division of Immunology and Allergy, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm/Sweden
- Department of Infectious Disease and Institute of Clinical Medicine Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus/Denmark
- Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Medical Center University Regensburg/Germany
- Division of Genetics, University of Erlangen/Germany
- Division of Asthma Exacerbation & Regulation, Research Center Borstel, Leibniz Lung Center, Borstel/Germany
- Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology, Barcelona/Spain (VHIO)
News
Polling, Germany – May 17, 2021
IcanoMAB announces a novel IL-18 signaling blocker (anti-IL-1R7) ready for development for the treatment of the Cytokine-Release-Syndrome in latestage Covid-19
Polling, Germany – September 7, 2020
IcanoMAB GmbH founded with private funding to develop precision canonical monoclonal antibodies in Oncology, Immune-modulation, Acute Inflammation and most urgently for Covid-19
Contact
Contact Info
Our Location
IcanoMAB GmbH
Tassilostr. 2
82398 Polling
Call Us
+49 881 399 08940
Our Email
info@IcanoMAB.com