Venture Leaders Life Sciences 2018 - Meet Christian Leisner of CDR-Life
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A week from now, Christian Leisner, CDR-Life CEO will head to Boston with Venture Leaders Life Sciences for a unique investors roadshow. Read about his motivation for applying to the program and what he hopes to achieve.
Who are you and what is CDR-Life?I am a seasoned drug developer and the CEO of CDR-Life, a biotech company developing novel immunotherapies based on trispecific biologics. Early proof-of-concept results show that our lead compounds in multiple myeloma have the potential to beat the best biologics currently in development against this cancer.
Why did you choose Boston as your business development destination?
Boston is one of the most important Life Sciences clusters globally. A strong presence of academic Life Sciences research, biotech startups, and big pharma, makes it an attractive place to explore strategic and investment partnerships.
What do you hope to achieve from the trip?
We hope to create awareness among life science investors and pharma companies of the enormous potential of our novel immunotherapies.
Why is the Venture Leaders Life Sciences experience beneficial for your company?
By connecting with investors and potential partners in Boston, we have a chance to learn from entrepreneurial experts as well as to establish business partnerships that secure funding for CDR-Life to continue to make our trispecific biologics into highly differentiated immunotherapies.
What is pushing you towards international expansion?
Bringing a novel biologics technology, a focus on immuno-oncology, and an accomplished and ambitious drug development team, we believe CDR-Life is a great match for the interest of American life science investors.
What do you foresee as the largest hurdles towards expansion into the Boston area?
Connecting, as a Swiss biotech company, with investors and strategic partners in the US without the support of a strong local network is a challenge.
What makes you most nervous or excited about the trip?
This opportunity of presenting our promising new immunotherapies to relevant stakeholders in the Boston area holds lots of potential to form lasting relationships and is very exciting for CDR-Life as well as for me personally.
Follow the Venture Leaders Life Sciences roadshow on Twitter and Facebook using the hashtag #vleadearsLifeScience.
Venture Leaders Life Sciences is co-organized by Venturelab and swissnex Boston, and supported by Kellerhals Carrard, digitalswitzerland, Canton de Vaud, Canton of Zurich, Wyss Foundation, EY entreprenenur of the year, EPF Lausanne, ETH Zurich, Paul Scherrer Institut and University of Zurich.
