Board of Directors and Business Advisory Council
Prof. Max Burger, MD, PhD
Chairman of the Board and Business Advisory Council.
Prof. Burger is the Chairman of the Novartis Science Board and in this role is responsible for the evaluation of research, worldwide, reporting directly to the BoD and CEO of Novartis.
He is the former director of the Friedrich Miescher Institute, Basel, and a member of multiple boards of directors and scientific advisory boards. These include boards from the Bundesministerium für Forschung und Technologie (BMFT), the Institut Pasteur, Paris and the Roche Research Foundation. Prof. Burger has been professor of biochemistry at Princeton University and the Biozentrum Basel for many years.
Prof. Burger is a long-time editor of several scientific journals in the area of cancer and has received many awards and honorary memberships for his scientific achievements.
Prof. Donald L. Drakeman, PhD
Prof. Drakeman is a Venture Partner at Advent Venture Partners. He is an entrepreneur and executive who has co-founded two leading monoclonal antibody companies, Medarex, Inc., and Genmab A/S. Under his leadership as CEO of Medarex, the company raised over a billion dollars, formed alliances with many pharmaceutical companies, developed numerous therapeutic products, and spun-off Genmab, which subsequently completed Europe’s largest biotech IPO to date. During his 22 years in the industry, he has overseen the progress of numerous innovative new antibody therapeutics for cancer, infectious disease and inflammation from research concept into clinical trials. He received an A.B. from Dartmouth College, a J.D. from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in the humanities from Princeton University, where he has served as a member of the faculty. He has served on the boards of directors of both public and private companies in the United States and Europe.
Prof. Fritz Melchers, PhD
Fritz Melchers is Professor for Immunology at the University of Basel and serves on the Board of 4-Antibody as one of the co-founders. He currently is a senior research group leader at the Max-Planck-Institute for Infectious Biology, Berlin, Germany, a position he took after retiring from his role as Director of the Roche-funded Basel Institute for Immunology, which he held for more than 20 years. Prof. Melchers is a leading expert in the field of Immunology, in particular B cell immunology, and author of more than 300 scientific publications and book chapters.
Before his time at the Basel Institute for Immunology his research career included positions at the Salk Institute at La Jolla, California, the Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin, and at the Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, Israel.
In addition to his extensive achievements in academic research, Prof. Melchers has served in a variety of scientific steering committees and advisory boards of academic institutions, and, more recently, has held Board positions in a number of biotech companies.
Gerhard Ries, PhD
Dr. Ries is Managing Partner and co-founder of BioMedinvest, a Basel-based venture capital company. Previously, he was Partner at InterPharmaLink, a management consulting firm specialising in product portfolio and supply chain optimization for large pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Ries has several years of experience as project manager at McKinsey & Co and as Business Development Manager at Novartis.
Before joining Novartis, he gained research experience in the Pharma/Biotech sector by holding positions at Ciba Geigy, Boehringer Mannheim, Harvard Medical School and Max Planck-Institute for Biochemistry. Dr. Ries holds an MSc and PhD degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Basel and a diploma degree in Biotechnology from the Fachhochschule Weihenstephan.
Besides his commitment to 4-Antibody, he holds Board positions in several other start-up companies.
Raj Parekh, PhD
Dr. Parekh is a General Partner at the London-based Advent Venture Partners. Previously, he was Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President of Research at Oxford GlycoSciences, which he co-founded in 1988. In addition to his responsibilities for research, drug discovery, proteomics/genomics and the IP portfolio, he had a strong role in business development there. He was instrumental in the flotation of Oxford GlycoSciences in 1998, its flotation on NASDAQ in 2000 and its subsequent merger with Celltech. Earlier in his career Dr. Parekh held a post-doctoral research position at the University of Oxford, from which he also holds a BA in Biochemistry and a PhD in molecular medicine.
In addition to his dedication to 4-Antibody, Dr. Parekh also serves on the supervisory boards of several other biotech companies.
Mark Wegter, MSc
Mark Wegter is Investment Manager and General Partner at the Amsterdam-based venture capital company Life Sciences Partners (LSP). In 2001 he established LSP’s Munich office and has successfully extended LSP’s foothold in Germany. Mr. Wegter gained professional experience in positions at ING Barings Investment Banking in Amsterdam and São Paulo. At ING Barings he served as a senior analyst on Global Risk Management and also served as the assistant to a member of the executive committee, with worldwide responsibility for risk management. Mr Wegter has a finance background, and holds a masters degree in business economics from the Erasmus University of Rotterdam.
Besides his commitment to 4-Antibody, he also serves on the supervisory Boards of a number of start-up companies.