Dr. Matthias Friebe joins Camel-IDS as acting Chief Technology Officer.
Camel-IDS, a private biotechnology company developing novel radioligand therapies in oncology, announces the appointment of Dr. Matthias Friebe as acting Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Dr. Friebe will be responsible for defining and executing the chemical R&D, Manufacturing and Controls (CMC) strategy of Camel-IDS, as well as ensuring supply chain management of the company’s product candidates. As a member of the Executive Committee, he will contribute to the development and implementation of the overall corporate strategy.
“Since early 2019 Dr. Friebe has been working with our team as a consultant. We are thrilled that he now has accepted to step up his commitment and take on the role of acting CTO, while remaining involved in start-up’s that he co-founded. As we prepare for the start of a Phase I/II study with our lead compound in 2020 and our earlier-stage product candidates are progressing through preclinical development, our CMC activities are gearing up accordingly”, said Ruth Devenyns, CEO of Camel-IDS. “Matthias is bringing the necessary skills to support the company on this growth path. Having over 20 years of experience in the field of radiotherapy, SPECT- and PET-probe development, he contributed to numerous radiodiagnostic and radiotherapeutic products at various stages in development.”
Dr. Friebe studied Chemistry at the Technical University Dresden and obtained his PhD in 1999. He subsequently held various positions at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School in the US. Following his academic career, he joined Schering AG / Bayer HealthCare in 2000 and took on the position of VP Drug Discovery, Radiochemistry Research from 2008 to 2012. In 2012, he co-founded Piramal Imaging, a molecular imaging company, where he headed the CMC departments. Following the acquisition of Piramal Imaging by Alliance Medical in 2018, he founded Arion Radiopharma Consulting.
On his appointment, Dr. Friebe commented: “I’m excited to join Camel-IDS at this important stage. The field of radiopharmaceuticals is clearly gaining traction as new technologies for the development of targeted radioligand therapies are being explored and novel compounds reach the market. With its single-domain antibody platform as well as technological know-how, Camel-IDS has strong tools in hand to become a pioneer in the field and develop life-changing treatments”.
About Camel-IDS
Camel-IDS is a private, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to extending and improving the lives of cancer patients by designing and developing novel radiopharmaceuticals, using camelid single-domain antibodies (sdAb) labeled with radioisotopes. The Company is advancing its lead product CAM-H2 towards a Phase I/II trial targeting HER2-positive cancer, while further progressing and broadening its preclinical pipeline. Cancer patients with tumors that overexpress HER2, a growth-promoting protein, can benefit from effective targeted treatments today, yet have a poor prognosis when the cancer spreads. Camel-IDS’ lead program CAM-H2 aims to effectively irradiate cancer lesions while sparing healthy tissue, based on its unique technology platform that leverages the favorable tissue distribution of camelid-derived, single-domain antibodies linked to radionuclides. The Company’s technology platform also allows for a theranostic approach, where patients can be selected using a low dose/imaging version of the product, followed by a high therapeutic dose for treatment.
Camel-IDS was incorporated in 2014 as a spin-off from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. The Company secured EUR 37m in a Series A investment round in November 2018, led by V-Bio Ventures (Belgium) and Gimv (Belgium), joined by the co-lead investors HealthCap (Sweden), Novo Seeds (Denmark), Pontifax (Israel), BioMedPartners (Switzerland) and existing investors.
For more information, please visit www.camel-ids.com.