akampion: Can you tell us about the history of Venus Pharma?

SMS: Venus has its origin in the Indian generics industry and was founded in 1989 as Venus Remedies Ltd. However, the company meanwhile is very strong in innovative pharmaceutical products, in particular in fixed-dose combinations. Venus operates a large research center in India, which is accredited by the Indian government. Moreover, the company holds about 370 patents, has around 100 products and employs about 1,500 people in India alone. There are currently six offices worldwide – Venus Pharma GmbH was established in Germany in March 2006 and meanwhile has a staff of 15 full- and 30 part-time employees.

akampion: Why did the company decide to establish a German subsidiary?  » Read more...

akampion: You are organizing a new conference called Innovations and Investments in Healthcare (IIHC). What is the idea behind this new event?

R.R.: I had been organizing an exclusive, invite-only German event for the past five years in Munich, but I felt it was time to open the format for new ideas and new people and also attract a broader, international audience. The past conferences have been very successful because we were not relying on the typical company presentations, but instead hosted interactive panels consisting of four experts and one senior partner of Roman Rittweger Advisors in Healthcare. No boring slides! The new event takes the concept even further and is, among others, inspired by the TED conferences.

   » Read more...

In 2006, long-time journalists Victoria English and William Ellington decided to quit their jobs and to establish their own publication, the biomedical trade journal MedNous (pronounced Med-Nows). A year later, in September 2007, the first issue appeared alongside with the website www.mednous.com.

akampion: Why did you establish MedNous?

Victoria English: Both of us thought Europe’s very innovative life science industry needed better communication. Back then, everyone was thinking in clusters and areas, and we felt by connecting the dots we could support the industry in its efforts to increase efficiency. Second, at that time the European Commission and the EMEA were very worried about the decreasing productivity of the biopharmaceutical industry, and Europe developed the Innovative Medicines Initiative, similar to the FDA’s Critical Path policy. This, too, called for better collaboration, and we wanted to capture this shift in official politics to encourage collaboration and translation of discoveries into products. Third, after working for many years in big corporations such as Reuters, DowJones, McGraw Hill and Informa, I thought it is time to start my own company.  » Read more...

In 2010, Tom Kronbach headed the management buy-out of biocrea from Biotie Therapies (Finland). Since then, he has expanded biocrea´s management team and been responsible for building a cutting-edge portfolio of CNS drugs. Tom has spent the past decades focusing on drug development at companies such as Warner Lambert and was a co-founder of elbion, which was acquired by Biotie Therapies in 2008.

akampion: biocrea has just had its first anniversary. Has everything turned out as expected?

Tom Kronbach: Our first year was very interesting. When we started last year, we had a number of opportunities in mind – VC financing, M&A projects, partnering – but we did not know how they would work out. The first year was full of surprises, so diversification in the early days has been key to determine which strategy works for us.  » Read more...

We are currently establishing a new section called akampion Meets… Here you will find interviews with executives, investors, journalists, consultants and other professionals who share their personal opinions, experiences and insights. Check back soon!