Speakers

'What to consider for next-generation startups in CMD?'

Trine has + 15 years’ experience in the life science sector, where she especially enjoys working in the intersection between science and business. In her role as Chief Business Officer at BII, she is responsible for running the institute’s Bio Studio Program, a 3-year company creation program for academic research within health tech, pharmaceuticals and bioindustrial areas. Furthermore, she is running BII’s Women’s Health Initiative in close collaboration with external partners.

Prior to joining BII, Trine has worked as a Venture Capitalist at Sunstone Life Science Ventures, investing in both health tech and pharmaceuticals. Furthermore, she has spent 6 years with Novo Nordisk working with the strategic planning of the R&D portfolio within metabolic diseases followed by initiating Novo Nordisk’s Digital Health journey. She holds a M.Sc. in Finance and accounting (Copenhagen Business School) and a Certificate in Pharmaceutical Drug Development from European Center of Pharmaceutical Medicine (ECPM, Basel).

'Incretins past, present and future'

Matthew Coghlan has a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge and was a Royal Society NATO Post-Doctoral Fellow at Harvard Medical School. Subsequently, Matthew has gained 25 years experience in Pharmaceutical R&D in Metabolic Disease across several global Pharma companies in Europe and the US.

Since joining Eli Lilly and Company in 2018 Matthew has provided strategic leadership of the Incretin Portfolio that includes peptide and small molecule programs from early Research through the end of Phase 2.

Further, Matthew has overseen an extensive program of pre-clinical research in support of the Lilly Incretin R&D Portfolio. This highly collaborative research continues to yield new insights into the mechanisms of action of tirzepatide, retatrutide and orforglipron.

In his “Scientific Partnerships” role, Matthew is tasked with identifying scientific innovation in Europe that has potential to further enable the Lilly DOCTA portfolio.

'Leveraging academic discoveries to therapies for cardiometabolic diseases'

Richard DiMarchi is a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Gill Chair in Biomolecular Sciences at Indiana University. Dr. DiMarchi is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He is recognized for his contributions to the discovery and development of rDNA derived Humulin®, Humalog®, rGlucagon®, and Forteo®. His academic research has broadened the understanding of glucagon physiology and the discovery of single molecule multimode agonists for the treatment of diabetes and obesity.

Professor DiMarchi is co-inventor on more than one hundred U.S. patents and co-author to more than two hundred fifty peer-reviewed scientific publications. Since 2003, he has co-founded eight successful biotech companies. Professor DiMarchi has received the Merrifield Award for career contributions in peptide sciences, the Erwin Schrödinger-Preis, the Meienhofer Prize, the Max Bergmann Medal, the ACS Burger career award in medicinal chemistry, and co-recipient of the 2023 AAAS Bhaumik Breakthrough Award.

'Navigating responsibilities for advancing public health: Perspectives from the pharmaceutical industry'

Martin Lange, a Danish national born in 1970. With a background in endocrinology, he commenced his career at Novo Nordisk in 2002, focusing on growth hormone, GLP-2, and oral anti-diabetics. After two years as senior medical director in the USA, he assumed the role of vice president, Medical & Science. From 2013 to 2017, he served as corporate project vice president for Insulin & Diabetes Outcomes and subsequently Insulin & Devices, being responsible for the development and approval of the Novo Nordisk insulin portfolio.

Since 2018, he has overseen overall clinical innovation and development across Novo Nordisk's portfolio, encompassing not only Diabetes but also obesity, cardiovascular, and rare diseases. Dr. Lange is currently Executive Vice President and Head of Development. Dr. Lange holds a PhD in Endocrinology from the University of Copenhagen and serves on the board of Pharmacosmos A/S.

'Current and future roles for venture capital in cardiometabolic innovation'

Prior to founding Sound Bioventures, Johan was a Senior Partner at Lundbeckfonden Ventures where he worked for 12 years, and led investments and served as a Board Director in companies in Europe and USA.

Before this, Johan worked in the biopharmaceutical industry for 20 years. He is a co-founder of three biotech companies including Biovitrum - a metabolic diseases company - (OMX:SOBI) where he led Business development and the Research division. He also worked at Pharmacia for a decade within Research, Portfolio and Project management and through three large mergers.

'Treatment of cardiometabolic disease – perspectives from pharma and funding agencies'

Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen is a Danish native born in 1960 and receiving his school education in United Kingdom and Denmark.

In 1986, Professor Thomsen graduated from University of Copenhagen where he later also obtained his PhD and DSc degrees within the pharmacology of experimental therapeutics. After three years of pharmacological research at Leo Pharma, he joined Novo Nordisk A/S where he was head of Growth Hormone research, Diabetes R&D, Global Drug Discovery and, since 2000, Executive Vice President and Chief Science Officer. In this role, he was responsible for global drug and device research, CMC and global development, medical affairs, regulatory and safety within Novo Nordisk. During his tenure, more than 20 innovative medicines were developed and approved.

On 1 March 2021, Mads was appointed CEO of the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

Professor Thomsen has chaired Danish Research Council programmes within endocrinology and served as President of the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences. Professor Thomsen has been board member of the Danish Technical University, Cellartis AB, Steno Diabetes Center, Symphogen A/S, and Chairman of the Board of the University of Copenhagen and Steno Diabetes Center. Today, he serves as member of the board of BB Biotech, Switzerland, and the BioInnovation Institute (BII), Denmark.

Professor Thomsen has also served as a member of the editorial boards of international, peer-reviewed journals. Since 2000, he has served as adjunct professor of pharmacology at the Faculty of Health at University of Copenhagen.

At a national level, Professor Thomsen has acted as Chairman of the Danish Biotech, Research and Innovation Centre during its establishment, as well as on governmental committees, e.g. as Chairman of the working group ‘to create the next generation of life science companies’ under the Life Science Council, the Danish Government’s Growth Team for Life Science, and revision of the Danish system for post-graduate studies. His scientific publications include books, chapters and scientific papers within pharmacology, immunology, endocrinology and haemostasis.

'Effective drugs for obesity: Patient gain and healthcare strain'

Stinus Lindgreen holds a PhD in bioinformatics from University of Copenhagen and has worked both in academia and industry in Denmark and abroad. He is currently a member of the Danish parliament for the Social-Liberal Party.

'Systems biology of metabolism'

As the CEO of BII, Jens Nielsen builds strong international relations and ensures a clear working direction for the BII team. Jens is a professor at the Chalmers University of Technology and an adjunct professor at DTU and Copenhagen University, with a vast amount of life-science research experience.

'Current status for obesity management in Denmark'

Kirstine is the Medical head of the section for Obesity and Nutrition at Hvidovre Hospital responsible for hospital based treatment of patients with severe and complex obesity in the Capital Region offering surgical and pharmacological weight loss interventions. Her field is clinical research in the pathophysiology of obesity and related comorbidities and the effects of bariatric surgery and targeted non-surgical interventions.

She is part of the leadership team of the Lighthouse Consortium for Obesity Management (LightCOM). LightCOM is responsible for conducting three clinical trials in people living with obesity to explore the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a combined diet-drug intervention on cardiometabolic health, weight, physical ability, and quality of life across primary and secondary health care sectors in Denmark and United Kingdom.

'Zealand Pharma - Key player in the fast-growing obesity market'

Adam was appointed to the position of CEO at Zealand Pharma in March 2022 and has 20+ years of experience in both the private and public sectors. Adam has led a significant transformation of Zealand and period of growth for the company. Prior to being appointed CEO, Adam served for several years as Zealand’s Chief Medical Officer and Head of Research & Development and was responsible for the company’s R&D strategy and portfolio of drug candidates. Prior to joining Zealand, Adam led clinical research teams as medical director at Novo Nordisk and worked as a clinician at Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen.

He is also a medical and scientific advisor in the areas of endocrinology, cardiology, gastroenterology and rheumatology, and has significant experience in leading regulatory strategies.

Adam is a former Board Member at DANISH BIO - DANSK BIOTEK.

'Emerging therapies for cardiovascular disease'

Chief Physician at the Department of Clinical Biochemistry at Rigshospitalet, Clinical Professor of Clinical Biochemistry with Focus on Translational Molecular Cardiology University of Copenhagen. Research has focused on genetics and genomics of cardiovascular disease and related diseases in large prospective studies of the general population. Recent focus areas include drug target Mendelian randomization, polygenic risk scores for dyslipidemia and CAD, and transthyretin amyloidosis.

Current member of the steering committees of the Copenhagen City Heart Study and the Copenhagen General Population Study. Executive Editor on European Heart Journal and on the Advisory Board of Nature Reviews in Cardiology.

'Building a Leading Biotech Innovation Powerhouse'

Jan van de Winkel is President and Chief Executive Officer of Genmab, which he co-founded in February 1999. Genmab is a leading international biotechnology company that specializes in the creation and development of innovative and differentiated antibody therapeutics, with the aim of transforming the lives of people with cancer and other serious diseases.

Dr. van de Winkel has over 30 years of experience in the therapeutic antibody field and served as Vice President and Scientific Director of Medarex Europe prior to Genmab. He is the author of over 300 scientific publications and has been responsible for over 180 patents and patent applications. Dr. van de Winkel holds a Professorship in Immunotherapy at Utrecht University. He is chairman of the board of directors of Hookipa Pharma, and member of the board of directors of LEO Pharma.

'GUBRA: From nowhere to NASDAQ - luck-work-learnings and the need for GUts and BRAins'

Niels Vrang has spent the past 30 years in basic and applied science focused on brain mechanisms regulating key homeostatic functions such as circadian rhythms, food intake, diabetes and metabolism. Initially out of academia Niels Vrang has been the co-founder of two early stage research service and biotech companies the latter of which - Gubra - was listed on NASDAQ Copenhagen main market in 2023.

'Pharmacotherapies for Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes: the journey to real clinical benefit'

Professor John Wilding leads clinical research into Obesity, Diabetes and Endocrinology at the University of Liverpool, where he has worked since 1996, after training in Southampton and London. His clinical interests focus on caring for people with diabetes and obesity and he leads specialist services for obesity at Aintree University Hospital – designated a Centre for Obesity Management by the European Association for the Study of Obesity.

John’s research team focusses on developing and evaluating treatments for obesity and type 2 diabetes. He has published over 350 papers, chapters and review articles, including clinical trials in diabetes and obesity, as well as studies of adipocyte biology and metabolism.

He has advised NICE and NHS England on various aspects of obesity care. He is past President of the World Obesity Federation.

'Unlocking the world without chronic diseases through innovation'

Dr. Bei B. Zhang is a seasoned pharmaceutical executive, and a proven leader in drug discovery and development. She is currently Corporate Vice President, Diabetes, Obesity & MASH, Global Drug Discovery, Novo Nordisk, based in Boston, MA and Copenhagen, Denmark. She is leading research and responsible for setting the strategy and advancing the pipeline in key strategic therapeutic areas. Dr. Zhang previously held leadership roles at Pfizer, Lilly and Merck and led teams to bring numerous drug candidates from the laboratory to human proof-of-concept and to bringing medicine to market that impacted millions of people with diabetes.

Dr. Zhang has an excellent track record of scientific accomplishment illustrated by 150 original articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals. She was elected to the Scientific Advisory Board of Keystone Symposia in 2011 and the Board of Directors of Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology in 2013. She organized multiple Keystone and scientific society conferences and has been a speaker at numerous scientific conferences. She was elected to the Board of ASBMB Deuel Lipid Conference in 2023.

'Exploration of Biological Diversity'

Dr. Zhang is a molecular biologist focused on improving human health. He played an integral role in the development of two revolutionary technologies, optogenetics and CRISPR-Cas systems, including pioneering the use of Cas9 for genome editing and discovering CRISPR-Cas12 and Cas13 systems and developing them for therapeutic and diagnostic applications.

Current research in the Zhang laboratory is centered on the discovery of novel biological systems and processes, uncovering their mechanisms, and developing them into molecular tools and therapies to study and treat human disease.

Zhang is a core member of the Broad Institute, Investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, the James and Patricia Poitras Professor of Neuroscience at MIT, and a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as a fellow in the National Academy of Inventors.