Novo Holdings creates Hemab

Hemab ApS will combine antibody know-how from Genmab A/S and Novo Nordisk to fight medically underserved orphan bleeding disorders.  The company was co-founded by Johan Faber and Søren Bjørn, who until 2018, held leadership positions within hemophilia drug research and development at Novo Nordisk A/S. Hemab has secured an exclusive license to certain intellectual property to develop a product to treat hemophilia and other rare bleeding disorders from Novo Nordisk A/S and an exclusive license to Genmab A/S’s proven bispecific DuoBody^® platform technology. Novo Seeds, a subsidiary of Novo Holdings, has worked closely with the founders to develop a commercially attractive business plan to maximise the potential of Hemab’s promising technology platform.

Hemab’s platform combines Roche’s Hemlibra’s (emicizumab) concept to activate different complement factors at the same time to brigde the lack of other factors in patients with a heriditary handicap.

Jørgen Søberg Petersen, Novo Seeds Partner, will join Henmab as Chairman and Camilla Petrycer Hansen, Novo Seeds Senior Associate, will also join the Board. In addition, Benny Sørensen, MD, PhD, will join the Board as an Independent Non-Executive Director and plans to leverage his impressive track record of preclinical and clinical development experience from the biotech and pharmaceutical industries in both Europe and the US. Dr. Sørensen currently serves as Senior Vice President, Head of Clinical Development at Codiak BioSciences.