Meet Elthera CEO Anne Schmidt and find out how she went back to her entrepreneurial roots 

16.10.2020 08:35, Isabelle Mitchell

Venture Leader China Anne Schmidt co-founded Elthera, a biotech startup that develops immunotherapy directed against the L1CAM gene, which harnesses the patient’s own immune system to actively eliminate cancer cells and stop tumor progression. Learn more about Anne’s expectations for the Venture Leader China experience, what makes her nervous, and how she clears her mind. 

The Venture Leaders China 2020 will accelerate their expansion into the Chinese market and build a business network through meetings with top-notch investors and industry leaders. To introduce you to the members of the Swiss National Startup Team, we asked each entrepreneur to complete a short profile and choose four questions from a questionnaire about their personal and professional life.

Name: Anne Schmidt 
Job title: CEO of Elthera 
Location: Schlieren    
Nationality: German and Swiss
Graduated from: University Stuttgart, Germany 
Number of employees: 3 
First touchpoint with Venturelab: In 2018 for the Venture Leaders Life Sciences
 
“At Elthera, we are developing an antibody-based therapy for the treatment of highly malignant tumors.”
 
How and where did you come up with the idea for your startup? 
Before starting Elthera, I was working at ESBATech, a Schlieren-based biotech company that was acquired by Alcon/Novartis in 2009. Working in a corporate environment like Novartis is very different from working in a biotech company. After about six years in big pharma—and learning a lot there—it was time to go back to the roots. Together with two colleagues, we were scouting for interesting projects from academia, and luckily, we found our L1CAM antibody project on which we built Elthera in 2016.  
 
What do you expect from the Venture Leaders program, and how will it help you achieve your vision?
The pharma landscape in China is very diverse and blurry with lots of smaller companies, where Venture Leaders would be of great help to get access and to open a network within this environment. Also, to get insights into the cultural differences and the do’s and don’ts when dealing with Chinese companies and investors would be a big benefit.  
 
Where and when are you most productive? 
I am most productive in the team, discussing the latest results, the strategy, and the path forward. It does not really matter where this happens—either in the office or at a nice place somewhere else—as long as we are not distracted too much.  
 
How and where do you clear your mind?  
After a day in the office, a bike ride back home along the Limmat river does the job. 
 
What is your favorite book?  
It changes from time to time; right now it is Rückwärtswalzer written by Vea Kaiser: A family is transferring the body of their passed-away uncle back to his home country in a Fiat Panda—bizarre and entertaining.  
 
What is always in your fridge?  
A lot, an empty fridge makes me nervous: butter, cream, sourdough, champagne, cheese, ice cream, tonic water, and more.  

Last but not least, can you show us your workspace? 

 

For more information and updates on Elthera and the Venture Leaders China, follow the Venture Leaders China 2020 team with #VleadersChina on social media or subscribe to our newsletter. 
 
This year’s Venture Leaders China is organized in collaboration with swissnex China and supported by EPF Lausanne, ETH Zurich, Gebert Rüf Stiftung, VISCHER, Canton Vaud, and the Canton of Zurich.