- Dr. Dolsten was most recently CSO of Pfizer and has served in leadership roles at AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Pharmacia, and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals
- Appointment follows the transition of Morten Graugaard from Chairperson to CEO earlier this year
Orbis Medicines, a leader in oral macrocycle drug discovery, today announces the appointment of Mikael Dolsten, M.D., Ph.D., former Chief Scientific Officer, President, Pfizer Research Development, as Chairperson of the Board of Directors.
In more than 15 years at Pfizer, Dr. Dolsten oversaw the development and approval of more than 35 therapies and vaccines, and moved more than 100 drug candidates into clinical development.
"Mikael has a long and successful track record overseeing the development of blockbuster therapies and vaccines from discovery through approval, and shares Orbis' vision of embracing macrocycle-based medicines to unlock new treatment options for patients," said Orbis Chief Executive Officer Morten Graugaard. "Mikael's guidance will be pivotal as we advance our mission to provide novel, high-value oral alternatives to existing biologics, which have tremendous potential to address the needs of patients with chronic diseases and to streamline the healthcare system."
Prior to his tenure at Pfizer, Dr. Dolsten served in leadership roles at AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Pharmacia, and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Dolsten has served on several public boards in the US and Europe and has vast experience in business development, including 10 different mergers and acquisitions.
"By creating oral alternatives to biologics such as antibodies and peptides and designing oral drugs for hard-to-drug intracellular targets, the work Orbis Medicines is doing will dramatically expand access to treatment for patients suffering from many chronic and devastating diseases, which is truly the next frontier in drug discovery," said Dr. Dolsten. "What the Orbis Medicines team led by Morten are achieving in the field of oral macrocycle medicines positions the company to be a disruptor of the biologics market. I believe Orbis Medicines has the potential to become the leading oral macrocycles and oral biologics biotech company."
Dr. Dolsten's accomplishments include the introduction of a new class of oral medications for autoimmune diseases, the development and approval of targeted anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitors in non-small cell lung cancer and Pfizer's rapid R&D response to the COVID-19 pandemic (see "Note to Editors" below for more information).
Orbis Medicines is pioneering the systematic discovery and development of targeted, orally available macrocycles for diseases and targets traditionally treated with biologics. Orbis develops compounds known as nCycles, which can address a wide range of validated protein targets with unique oral bioavailability and membrane permeability features.
About Orbis Medicines
Orbis Medicines is pioneering a new era for oral macrocycle drug discovery. Its nGen platform systematically delivers macrocycle candidates, termed nCycles. These are optimized for oral bioavailability, which has historically hindered therapeutic development of this versatile class of molecules. Orbis' pipeline is initially focused on nCycle candidates against targets validated by blockbuster biologic drugs delivered by injection. Proof-of-concept of Orbis' work has been published in Nature Communications and Nature Chemical Biology. The company has raised €116 million in venture funding to date, including a €90 million series A round led by NEA with new investors Lilly Ventures, Cormorant, EIFO and existing investors Forbion and Novo Holdings. Orbis is located in Copenhagen, Denmark and Lausanne, Switzerland. For more information, please visit: www.orbismedicines.com
About nGen
nGen is Orbis Medicines' technology platform for generating nCycles, a new class of fully synthetic macrocycle compounds optimized for oral bioavailability and membrane permeability. It consists of multiple proprietary integrated elements in a "lab in a loop" system starting with hit finding libraries of 100 billion compounds. The highly automated chemistry-based nGen platform can synthesize and analyze up to 100,000 distinct synthetic macrocycles in weeks, allowing the company to discover candidates with the right properties to enable oral dosing and intracellular targeting. The scale and quality of the data produced from these real compounds, paired with machine learning, creates an industry-leading platform that de-risks and accelerates development.
Note to Editors
Notable accomplishments of Mikael Dolsten, M.D., Ph.D., during his tenure as Chief Scientific Officer, President, Pfizer Research Development
- Introduced a new class of oral medications for autoimmune diseases dominated by biologics, including first-in-class JAK inhibitor Xeljanz (tofacitinib) for rheumatoid arthritis ulcerative colitis, first-in-class Janus kinase 1 (JAK1) inhibitor Cibinqo (abrocitinib) for atopic dermatitis and the tyrosine kinase expressed in hepatocellular carcinoma/Janus kinase 3 (Tec/JAK3) drug Litfulo (ritlecitinib) for alopecia areata.
- Oversaw the development and approval of targeted ALK inhibitors in the highly competitive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) market, including first-in-class ALK inhibitor Xalkori (crizotinib) and third-generation ALK inhibitor Lorbrena (lorlatinib). Other major drug approvals during Dr. Dolsten's tenure at Pfizer included the breast cancer drug Ibrance (palbociclib), the myeloma drug Elrexfio (elranatamab-bcmm), the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor Talzenna, the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) inhibitor Inlyta (axitinib), the oral anti-coagulant Eliquis (apixaban), the transthyretin amyloid stabilizing drug Vyndaqel (tafamadis), the Prevnar 20 vaccine and the RSV vaccine Abrysvo.
- Spearheaded Pfizer's rapid R&D response to the COVID-19 pandemic, receiving emergency use authorization and subsequently full approval for the oral antiviral therapy Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir/ritonavir) and for COVID-19 mRNA vaccine Comirnaty, in partnership with BioNTech.
Dr. Dolsten announced his retirement from Pfizer in July 2024.
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