About us

Superior cancer therapeutics using transformative innovations.

At VERAXA Biotech, we strive to establish the premiere drug discovery and development engine for antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and novel antibody-based therapy concepts. By wielding a suite of transformative technological innovations and applying thorough quality-by-design principles in drug discovery, we are accelerating the pipeline through clinical development. VERAXA Biotech originates from scientific discoveries made at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), a world-leading institute for life science research and groundbreaking enabling technologies.

Vision

VERAXA will deliver the next wave of smart cancer therapies with curative potential and far less side effects.

Mission

VERAXA aims to be at the forefront of this smartest generation of antibody-based cancer therapeutics.

We develop cancer programs that are based on:

  • antibodies selected for the highest therapeutic value

  • an advanced generation of ADCs with never seen flexibility and ease of production

  • novel ADCs and our novel BiTAC antibody formats that elevate safety and efficacy to new levels

Managed by an experienced leadership team

Management

Christoph Antz
Ph.D., CEO, Co-Founder
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Christoph Antz
Ph.D., CEO, Co-Founder

Christoph is an experienced company executive and former venture capital manager in the fields of life sciences with special focus on drug development (small molecules and biologicals), diagnostics and instrumentation. Prior to VERAXA, he was Managing Director at Acousia Therapeutics (inner ear drug development) and Luxendo (light sheet microscopy).

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Torsten Bürgermeister
CFO
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Torsten Bürgermeister
CFO

Torsten has more than 20 years of professional and management experience within the fields of Finance and Business Development in global life science and tech companies such as Molecular Health, BASF Pharma, Techem Energy Services and Colt Telecom. He holds a Diploma in Business Administration from DHBW in Mannheim.

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Jan Endell
Ph.D., Interim CSO
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Jan Endell
Ph.D., Interim CSO

Jan brings over 15 years of expertise in drug development and strategic leadership, with a successful track record in advancing drugs from early stages to clinical development and commercialization. Throughout his career, he has held key senior management positions in public biotech companies, focusing on preclinical development and translational research in solid cancers and hemato-oncology.

Before joining VERAXA as Interim Chief Scientific Officer (CSO), Jan served as the Vice President of Preclinical Development at Affimed, where he led non-clinical development and discovery programs spawning various cancer indications. Prior to that role, he spent 12 years at Morphosys, driving preclinical development and translational science for drug programs in oncology and autoimmune diseases across all development phases.

Jan's academic background includes a PhD from LMU Munich, where he specialized in viral gene therapy aimed at addressing pre-existing immunity to adeno-associated viral vectors.

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Heinz Schwer
Ph.D., MBA, CBO
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Heinz Schwer
Ph.D., MBA, CBO

Heinz is a successful entrepreneur in biotech industry. He currently serves EMBL Ventures as General Partner focusing on venture building in life science. Prior to that, Heinz was CEO of various biotech companies in Austria, The Netherlands and Germany of which all were acquired by large pharma or biotech companies. Heinz studied Chemistry in Regensburg and earned his PhD in Clinical Chemistry. He was postdoc at Harvard Medical School, USA and holds an MBA from Henley Business School, UK.

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Board of Directors

Oliver Baumann
Acting Chairman of the Board
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Oliver Baumann
Acting Chairman of the Board

Oliver is a passionate entrepreneur and has more than 17 years of experience in investment banking, capital market strategies and life science. From 2003 to 2019, he held various positions at Credit Suisse and Sloan Asset Management Capital, where he focused on alternative investments, research in the biotech and medical technology sectors, and institutional clients. In addition, he holds various active board memberships.

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Jürgen Bauer
Ph.D., Board Member
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Jürgen Bauer
Ph.D., Board Member

Jürgen has more than 22 years of experience in successful business development and technology transfer. He is Deputy Managing Director and Head of Business Development at EMBLEM Technology Transfer GmbH, the commercial arm of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). Jürgen is a graduate of Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt (Biology) and holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology.

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David L. Deck
Board Member
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David L. Deck
Board Member

David is a deeply experienced entrepreneur in biotech with over 28 years of experience in company development and financing. David is focused on the life sciences industry and realized several successful exits in the area of biotech and Medtech up to date.

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Clinical Advisory Board

Ralf C. Bargou
Prof. Dr.
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Ralf C. Bargou
Prof. Dr.

Prof. Dr. Ralf C. Bargou currently serves as the Director at the Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC) Mainfranken and holds the Chair for Translational Oncology at the University Hospital Würzburg. He is a renowned expert for his significant contributions to immuno-oncology, particularly in the development of T-cell engaging bi-specific antibodies. His instrumental role in the creation of the bispecific antibody blinatumomab earned him the Paul Martini Prize in 2009 and the Inventor of the Year Award in 2016. He also developed targeted therapies for measurable residual disease (MRD) in acute lymphatic leukemia (ALL).

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Gernot Stuhler
Prof. Dr.
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Gernot Stuhler
Prof. Dr.

Prof. Dr. Gernot Stuhler is an entrepreneur and Adjunct Professor at University of Würzburg heading a research group focused on T cell-engaging antibody derivatives and exploring combinatorial immune-oncology strategies. In previous roles, he served as a senior physician at the Würzburg University Hospital and as Chief Physician at the German Clinic for Diagnostics (DKD) in Wiesbaden, Germany. Professor Stuhler was trained in Immunology at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biology and Immunogenetics in Tübingen, Germany and at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, in Boston, USA.

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Dimitrios Tzachanis
MD, PhD
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Dimitrios Tzachanis
MD, PhD

Dimitrios Tzachanis, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Medicine and the Clinical Director of the BMT Division at UC San Diego He specializes in treating patients with cancers of the blood and lymph system at the joint UC San Diego Health / Sharp HealthCare Blood and Marrow Transplantation Program with a focus on autologous and allogeneic stem cell transplantation and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. He has published more than sixty peer-reviewed articles in medical journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, the Lancet, Blood, Nature Immunology, among others.

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Matthias Miederer
Prof. Dr. med.
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Matthias Miederer
Prof. Dr. med.

Prof. Dr. med. Matthias Miederer is a renowned nuclear medicine physician leading the Department of Translational Imaging in Oncology at the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT/UCC), a joint center of excellence serving the University Hospital Dresden, the Medical Faculty at Dresden’s University of Technology, the German Cancer Research Centre DKFZ, and the Helmholtz-Association’s HDZR Center. In his role, Professor Miederer is paving the way for new radiopharmaceuticals into clinical practice in therapeutic and diagnostic applications. Prior to his current role, Professor Miederer worked at the University Medical Center of the University of Mainz, the Charité in Berlin, at the Klinikum rechts der Isar in Munich and as a Research Fellow at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

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Investors

VERAXA is a privately held company. Main shareholder is the Swiss company Xlife Sciences AG. Other shareholders are the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and its technology transfer arm EMBL Technology Transfer GmbH (EMBLEM), private investors, founders and management.

Join our team

We are your partner from target to antibody to ADC. Our unique antibody screening platform and proprietary ADC technology enable us to help you create the best targeted biotherapeutics for your application.

With partnership models tailored to your needs, we can join you at any step of your development journey, whether you are starting out with a target or are looking for a bioconjugation partner.

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