Management
Dr. Gerhard Scheuch, PhD - Founder and Chief Executive Officer
In 1998, Dr. Gerhard Scheuch founded Inamed Research GmbH & Co. KG in Munich and went on to found Activaero GmbH in Gemünden (Frankfurt) in 2004. His business plan for the foundation of Inamed was a winner in a nationwide McKinsey business plan competition in 1998. Before his industrial career, he worked as a scientist for the GSF – Research Centre for Environment and Health. He has been a researcher in the field of therapeutic and environmental aerosols since 1980. In 1996, he founded the German Aerosol Therapy Seminar (DATS), which still takes place once a year in Marburg, Germany. Dr. Scheuch is an active expert consultant of the German and European Medicines Agency and works as independent advisor for the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Scheuch has published numerous papers and chapters on pulmonary drug delivery. Together with his staff, he owns numerous patents world wide. He is part of the editorial board of the German Journal of Respiratory and Lung Disease and member in several international scientific organizations. In 1993, he was awarded with the Kenneth T. Whitby Award from the American Association Aerosol Research as first non-American. In July 2007, he was elected as upcoming president of the International Society for Aerosols in Medicine (ISAM) at the congress meeting in Tours, France. Dr. Scheuch originally studied in Rüsselsheim and at J.W. Goethe University in Frankfurt/Main, where he received his PhD in 1992.
Axel Fischer - Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer
Mr. Fischer joined Inamed Research GmbH & Co. KG in 2001 and, in 2004, became the managing director of the devices business. He went on to supervise the launch of Activaero as a stand alone brand in 2005 and has been in charge of the development of the headquarters of Activaero at Gemünden/Wohra (Hessen). In his role as managing director he is responsible for marketing/communication, logistics and IT. In 2002, he headed up the product launch of the AKITA inhalation system in Germany and Europe. In 2006, he founded the Activaero branch office in the USA (Dublin/Ohio). Before joining Activaero, Mr. Fischer was a Manager of Sales & Marketing for Intellitec, a Hessian manufacturer of laboratory software. From 1996 to 2000 he worked at Dade Behring GmbH, Marburg in different positions in international marketing and in IT-project management. Mr. Fischer originally studied at the Fachhochschule Fulda and graduated with a Diploma in Business Administration with a focus on marketing in 1996.
Dr. Henrik Luessen, PhD - Chief Business Officer
Henrik Luessen is the Managing Director of Tytonis B.V., a life science consultancy firm. Henrik's focus is on corporate strategy, business development, licensing and alliance management. Prior to founding Tytonis, he worked as Director Business Development at OctoPlus (EuroNext: OCTO), which he helped to develop from a group of 16 employees to a 130 people market leader in biopharmaceutical product development. Before OctoPlus, Henrik Luessen was Manager Corporate Development at LTS LOHMANN Therapie Systeme AG, responsible for business development in the field of new platform technologies worldwide. He obtained his Ph.D. at the Leiden/Amsterdam Center of Drug Research in Pharmaceutical Technology. He is the (co-)author of more than 30 international publications and patent applications in the field of drug delivery. Henrik is heading the subject group »Pharmaceutical Biotechnology« at the APV (International Association of Pharmaceutical Technology, Germany) and gives on a regular basis courses in technical (e.g. parenteral formulation of protein products, pulmonary delivery) and business related subjects. Since December 2003 he is appointed as Governor of the Executive Board of the European Association of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology (EAPB). Furthermore, he is member of the CRS and AAPS. He is also the Editor of the recently published books: “Starting a Business in the Life-Sciences: From idea to Market” and “Pulmonary Drug Delivery” (www.ecv.de).
Bernhard Müllinger - Chief Technical Officer
Bernhard Müllinger joined Activaero GmbH in 2000 and since 2004 he is responsible for medical device development. He managed device development projects as AKITA, AKITA², AKITA JET and several customer specific medical devices. He is responsible for optimization of pharmaceutical formulations, dosing and aerosol targeting strategies and has years of experience in clinical trials in aerosol medicine.
Before joining Activaero, Mr. Müllinger worked at the Asklepios Clinics in cooperation with the Clinical Research Group of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Munich. There he performed clinical trials with new lung diagnostic systems.
From 1995 to 1998 he worked for the Helmholtz-Zentrum Munich in biophysical and environmental aerosol research projects in the Group of Joachim Heyder.
Before joining to aerosols science Mr. Müllinger worked for the Faunhofer Institute for Solid State Physics in research on new gas sensor technology.
Mr. Müllinger originally studied at the Fachhochschule Munich and graduated with a Diploma in Precision and Micromechanical Engineering with a focus on medical devices in 1995.
Dr. Thomas Hofmann, MD - Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Hofmann served as Vice President of New Drug Development at Discovery Labs, where he focused on aerosolized application of pulmonary surfactants. Dr. Hofmann was a co-founder of Corus Pharma, Seattle, which was bought out by Gilead Sciences in 2006 for $365M. At Corus Pharma, he was responsible for the clinical development of aerosolized aztreonam for Cystic Fibrosis, and the clinical development of aerosolized lidocaine for asthma. Corus Pharma grew rapidly to a size of 120 employees, successfully raised funds, and recently submitted an NDA on the aerosolized aztreonam (Cayston) for CF. Before Corus Pharma, Dr. Hofmann worked for Pulmopharm, the German arm of Pathogenesis, and was part of the approval and launch of TOBI (tobramycin for inhalation) in Europe. Dr. Hofmann received his MD and PhD from the University of Giessen, Germany in 1994, and spent his postdoctoral research at the Cystic Fibrosis Center at UNC Chapel Hill. He is a Pediatric Pulmonologist, with broad experience in pulmonary disease, and holds a number of patents on the aerosolized therapy of pulmonary diseases.
Dr. Florian Fischer - Chief Financial Officer
Dr. Fischer has been CFO of Activaero since 2006. He is also the founder and CEO of MedVenture Partners – a Munich based corporate finance and strategy advisory company focusing on the life sciences and health care. He has acted as lead advisor in a variety of transactions and financings in the life sciences and health care. Prior to founding MedVenture Partners Dr. Fischer worked with KPMG for more than 6 years, responsible for biotech and healthcare assignments. Before joining KPMG, he worked for Deutsche Bank AG. Dr. Fischer holds a graduate degree in business administration and a PhD in public health and is an active lecturer at the Odeon Center for Entrepreneurship of the Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität Munich.
William C. Zimlich, CEO, Activaero America, Inc.
William Zimlich became CEO of Activaero America, Inc at its foundation in February 2007. As CEO, he is responsible for the organizational development of the US subsidiary. Before joining Activaero, Mr. Zimlich was a co-founder in 1997 of Battelle Pulmonary Therapeutics, Inc. (now Ventaira, Inc.) where he was Vice President responsible for research and development as well as manufacturing of cutting edge electromechanical aerosol delivery devices. Previous to that he held various roles in Medex Inc., AMS Plastics Inc., Stratagene Cloning Systems, Cambridge Automation and Chrysler Corporation where he began his career in 1984. He graduated from the Ohio State University with a BS and completed his MBA at the University of Detroit and holds multiple patents in the area of pulmonary drug delivery.
scientific Advisory Board
Activaero has assembled an advisory board including leaders in the field of inhalation technologies from around the world:
Prof. Dr. Karl Häußinger
Asklepios-Kliniken, Gauting
Prof. Dr. Dieter Köhler
Fachkrankenhaus Kloster Grafschaft
Prof. Dr. Claus Vogelmeier
Universitätsklinikum Gießen-Marburg
Prof. Dr. David Edwards
Harvard University, Boston, USA