About Spexis

 

Spexis is generating hope for rare disease & oncology patients by targeting critical unmet treatment needs and difficult-to-drug structures

Who we are

Spexis AG (SIX:SPEX) is a clinical-stage, publicly-listed biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing first-in-class macrocyclic molecules for rare diseases and cancer. The most advanced of our four clinical candidates (Phases 1-3) is ColiFin®, an inhaled therapeutic  for cystic fibrosis, is already approved and marketed in Europe and will be entering global pivotal P3 studies in early 2023. Furthermore, we apply our leading macrocyclic technology platform, the result of more than 25 years and $400 million of cumulative research and investment, to discover promising therapeutic candidates that can target difficult-to-drug structures. With our pipeline of potentially transformative product candidates, we aim to deliver substantial benefits to patients and meaningful value to society and our stakeholders.

Spexis is seeking development, commercialization, strategic transaction and financial partners for its rare disease and oncology programs and the Company in general

Our legacy

Spexis was created in December 2021 through the merger of EnBiotix, Inc., a privately held US biotech, into Polyphor AG, a publicly listed Swiss biotechnology company. EnBiotix was granted four of the six board seats and EnBiotix shareholders owned ~75% of entity’s outstanding shares post-merger, now traded under ticker SIX:SPEX on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

Management

Jeffrey D. Wager, M.D.

Chief Executive Officer

CV

Between 2011-2017, Jeff Wager was co-creator and board observer to Grupo Biotoscana SL, a Latin American specialty pharma roll-up financed by Advent International and Essex Woodlands Healthcare Ventures, focused on cancer, infectious and rare diseases, leading to its USD 1 billion 2017 IPO on sales of ~$240M and 600 staff in 10 LatAm markets. From 2006 – 2010, he formed and led Artisan Pharma, Inc. as its founding CEO, raising $53M, building the entire team and implementing a 750 patient, 17 country Phase 2b/3 study ultimately leading to Artisan’s acquisition by Asahi Kasei Pharma Corporation (Japan) in 2011. In 2000, Jeff formed Apeiron Partners, a FINRA-registered (via its affiliate Commonwealth PharmaSecurities LLC) life sciences investment bank focused on corporate spin-outs, M&A, corporate venture capital and principal investments. In the process, successfully completed six spin-outs, including Targacept, Inc. (NASD: TRGT), Artisan Pharma (from Asahi Kasei), Biocritica ($120M annual revenue Xigris® franchise from Eli Lilly) and KBI BioPharma (acquired by JSR Corporation (Japan)). Between 2003 and 2006, advised on the establishment and investment of Z-Cube s.r.l., the €60M corporate venture fund of the Zambon Group, a privately held Italian pharmaceutical company. Between 1995-2000, Jeff was with Medical Science Partners, a Harvard-founded VC fund focused on forming spin-outs from the Harvard medical system, including deCODE, ICAgen, Inspire, Oravax (subsequently Acambis), ZYCOS, Inc. and Diatide, amongst others.

Jeff Wager began his career with a life sciences unit of the Bank of Tokyo, where he led business development, responsible for helping Japanese pharmaceutical clients establish overseas affiliates, design, and conduct overseas clinical development and structure strategic alliances. Jeff is also a co-founder and Chairman of Proterris, Inc., a phase 2 clinical-stage firm focused on therapeutic uses of low-dose gaseous and small molecule carbon monoxide for transplant, fibrosis, and oncology indications. Jeff Wager earned his MD from Rush Medical College and his MBA from the University of Chicago.

Juergen Froehlich, M.D.

Chief Medical Officer

CV

Juergen Froehlich’s career in biotechnology spans three decades and covers a broad range of drug development projects and approvalsacross therapeutic areas such as cerebrovascular, cardiovascular, pulmonary, metabolic, oncologic, genetic and infectious disorders. He has worked with biologics, peptides, small molecules, and RNA therapeutics at companies including Boehringer Ingelheim, Genentech, Quintiles, Bristol-Myers-Squibb, Ipsen, Vertex, Aradigm and Genevant. Since 2005, he has mainly been involved with rare diseases including bronchiectasis, cystic fibrosis, non-tuberculous mycobacteria infection, acromegaly, neuroendocrine tumors, urea cycle disorders cervical dystonia and hemophilia. Juergen was instrumental in obtaining successful marketing authorizations in the US, EMA and other countries for ODD designated products in cystic fibrosis, acromegaly and cervical dystonia. As Chief Medical Officer and Head of Regulatory Affairs of Aradigm Corporation, he imlmented a Phase 3 trial program with inhaled liposomal ciprofloxacin in patients with bronchiectasis and chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa lung infection and was an invited panel member at a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) workshop in 2018 for inhaled antibiotics in cystic fibrosis and bronchiectasis. Juergen Froehlich is also serving as a Board member of Appili Therapeutics, a publicly traded infectious disease company in Canada. He received his MD from the Medical School at Wuerzburg University, Germany, is a Diplomate of the American Board of Clinical Pharmacology and holds an executive MBA degree from the Graduate School of Business Administration in Zurich, Switzerland.

Board

Jeffrey D. Wager, M.D.

Chairman

CV

Between 2011-2017, Jeff Wager was co-creator and board observer to Grupo Biotoscana SL, a Latin American specialty pharma roll-up financed by Advent International and Essex Woodlands Healthcare Ventures, focused on cancer, infectious and rare diseases, leading to its USD 1 billion 2017 IPO on sales of ~$240M and 600 staff in 10 LatAm markets. From 2006 – 2010, he formed and led Artisan Pharma, Inc. as its founding CEO, raising $53M, building the entire team and implementing a 750 patient, 17 country Phase IIb/III study ultimately leading to Artisan’s acquisition by Asahi Kasei Pharma Corporation (Japan) in 2011. In 2000, Jeff formed Apeiron Partners, a FINRA-registered life sciences investment bank focused on corporate spin-outs, M+A, corporate venture capital and principal investments. In the process, successfully completed six spin-outs, including Targacept, Inc. (NASD:TRGT), Artisan Pharma (from Asahi Kasei), Biocritica ($120M annual revenue Xigris® franchise from Eli Lilly) and KBI BioPharma (acquired by JSR Corporation (Japan)). Between 2003 and 2006, advised on the establishment and investment of Z-Cube s.r.l., the €60M corporate venture fund of the Zambon Group, a privately held Italian pharmaceutical company. Between 1995-2000, Jeff was with Medical Science Partners, a Harvard-founded VC fund focused on forming spin-outs from the Harvard medical system, including deCODE, ICAgen, Inspire, Oravax (subsequently Acambis), ZYCOS, Inc. and Diatide, amongst others.

Jeff Wager began his career with a life sciences unit of the Bank of Tokyo, where he led business development, responsible for helping Japanese pharmaceutical clients establish overseas affiliates, design and conduct overseas clinical development and structure strategic alliances. Jeff is also a co-founder and Chairman of Proterris, Inc., a phase II/III clinical-stage firm focused on therapeutic uses of low-dose gaseous and small molecule carbon monoxide for transplant, fibrosis, and oncology indications. Jeff Wager earned his MD from Rush Medical College and his MBA from the University of Chicago.

Dennis Ausiello, M.D.

Vice Chairman

CV

Dennis A. Ausiello is the Jackson Distinguished Professor of Clinical Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is concurrently the Director, Emeritus of the Harvard Medical School’s M.D./Ph.D. Program. He is also Chair of Medicine, Emeritus, and Director of the Center for Assessment Technology and Continuous Health (CATCH) at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dennis was the former Lead Director of the board of directors at Pfizer, Inc. Previously, and served as an editor of Cecil’s Textbook of Medicine. Dennis Ausiello serves on the board of directors of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Seres Therapeutics, Inc. and previously served on the board of directors of Pfizer, where he currently serves on the advisory board. Dennis received his B.S. from Harvard College and his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Throughout his career, Dennis Ausiello has made substantial contributions to the study of epithelial biology in the areas of membrane protein trafficking, ion channel regulation and signal transduction, and has published numerous articles, book chapters and textbooks.

Kuno Sommer, Ph.D.

CV

Kuno Sommer, Ph.D., today focuses on active board memberships in the life sciences sector as non-executive member. He is Chairman of the Board of the Bachem Group; the Sunstar group; TargImmune; PDS Pathology Data Systems AG and Kenta Biotech AG. In his last operational role he headed the contract research division of Harlan Laboratories Ltd. From 2000 until 2006 he was CEO of Berna Biotech Ltd, which was sold to Crucell N.V. in 2006 (today Johnson & Johnson). Starting in 1986 at F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd he worked in various functions until 1999 and spent 4 years in the US. In his last position at Roche he became a member of the Executive Committee, responsible for the Flavours and Fragrances division (today Givaudan Ltd). Dr. Sommer holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Basel as well as an MBA.

Dan Hartman, M.D.

CV

Dan Hartman is currently Director, Integrated Development for the Gates Foundation, leading a team that provides technical expertise in product development to other foundation teams and their partners. He joined the foundation in 2012 in his current role and served simultaneously as interim director of the Malaria team from 2016 to 2018. Dan has extensive management and pharmaceutical experience. Before joining the foundation, he served for four years as president and CEO of Great Lakes Drug Development, a consulting company providing strategic and operational support for early drug development projects. Previously, he served as senior vice president of product development at deCODE genetics, executive director of Pfizer Global Research and Development, and vice president of global clinical development at Esperion Therapeutics, and he held clinical research positions at Eli Lilly & Company. He has also provided consultation to the biopharmaceutical venture capital community and serves as a member/advisor on several nonprofit boards. Dan served as a member of the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and Cures Acceleration Network advisory board from 2016 to 2019 and was president of the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics. Dan Hartman has received numerous awards, including Inventor of the Year from the Intellectual Property Owners Association. He received his bachelor’s degree from Calvin College and his medical degree from Wayne State University. Dan was trained in internal medicine and completed a fellowship in pulmonary medicine at Indiana University, where he also served as chief medical resident.

Robert Clarke, Ph.D.

CV

Robert Clarke, has served as Chief Executive Officer / Board Member / Co-founder of Kinaset Therapeutics since 2020. He was previously Chief Executive Officer at Pulmatrix Inc. (NASDAQ:PULM), a clinical-stage respiratory drug delivery company, from 2012 to 2019 and successfully brought the company public in 2015. He joined Pulmatrix in 2004 as the first Ph.D.-level scientist and was appointed Chief Scientific Officer in 2010. In that role he was focused on developing the Pulmatrix technologies for the treatment of respiratory diseases. During his tenure as Chief Executive Officer, Pulmatrix raised more than $50 million in public equity, $80 million in venture capital funding and more than $10 million in non-dilutive funding to support the company’s development programs. Prior to his tenure at Pulmatrix, Robert was Associate Director, Life Sciences at Alkermes. He holds Board seats at several institutions including Johns Hopkins University and Boston University College of Engineering. Robert Clarke holds a Ph.D. in physiology from Johns Hopkins University and completed his post-doctoral training in respiratory biology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard University.

Bernard Bollag, MBA

CV

Bernard Bollag, MBA, is a senior finance executive with broad experience in corporate finance and capital markets. Bernard was CFO in private equity, until 2012, with HomeSun in the UK Renewable Energy sector, as well as internationally, across a broad portfolio of sectors and investments. Prior to that, Bernard was with Syngenta. As its Group Treasurer, Bernard led the company’s banking and capital markets funding of the company as it spun off from Novartis and Astra-Zeneca. He then established the company’s financial risk practice for the Group and its international affiliates. Prior to that, he led a typical international finance career at Unisys, progressing through planning, operations, investments and funding. He is the founder and MD of Beaufort Capital, a boutique supporting High Net Worth individuals with their private equity and alternative investments. Bernard Bollag holds an MBA in Finance from the Columbia Business School in New York and a BA in Economics from the Bar-Ilan University of Tel-Aviv.

 

 

 

Spexis has offices in Allschwil, Switzerland and Boston, MA

Employees

We are a team of professionals that bring together profound life science knowledge, an entrepreneurial mindset and strong personal dedication to bring better therapies to patients in need.