GENMAB

A market value of almost USD 675m, and a yield of approx. USD 160m. This was the result when Genmab A/S, the former American-Danish joint venture company, was introduced on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange and Neuer Markt in Frankfurt.

Just a year and a half after its establishment Genmab is now a public limited company.

There is no mistaking the figures. They confirm the words that Lisa N. Drakeman, Ph.D. and CEO of Genmab, said a year before: "The investment community is highly supportive".

Genmab A/S was established in May 1999 as a joint venture between Medarex and a group of Danish investors including BankInvest, A/S Dansk Erhvervsinvestering and the Employees' Capital Pension Fund.

From Medarex, Genmab has access to the bigger company’s pre-clinical development and manufacturing capabilities and has been granted the right to use the patented HuMAb-Mouse technology, from which Genmab can rapidly create high affinity fully human antibodies instead of mouse antibodies. This transgenic mouse technology avoids the need for humanisation or complicated genetic engineering, which can be time consuming and expensive. Furthermore, unlike Genmab's fully human antibodies, previous generations of antibody products have typically contained mouse or other animal proteins; such antibodies have the potential to elicit allergic responses or other complications.

Genmab has a two-pronged strategy for maximising the value of its antibody development capabilities:

• Genmab plans to move from genomics to products by developing antibodies to some of the unprecedented novel disease targets. These disease targets are being discovered through genomics and other scientific efforts.
• Genmab is developing antibodies to clinically validated targets where we would expect a human antibody to provide an improved product. The company intends to create a large and diverse portfolio of antibody products using this strategy.

From the Danish investors, Genmab has received initial funding of approximately USD 7.5m. The new Danish company is jointly owned by Medarex and the investors.

Genmab’s 30 employees have thus each generated more than USD 21m in average.

Start-capital and a readymade network

Denmark is also attractive in terms of investment opportunities. BankInvest, the leading fund group behind Genmab, has invested approx.USD 200m in the biotech industry worldwide and is one of the largest supporters of biotech initiatives in Europe. BankInvest has recently announced, that it will invest further USD 150m. In addition to providing funds, BankInvest put Genmab in touch with a network of high-level professionals from the industry, which enabled the fledgling company to assemble a working team almost immediately. BankInvest has a specific policy of starting new biotech firms in Denmark. Since 1998, the fund group has been involved in the launch of five companies and has a goal of starting four new companies each year. An almost modest goal considering the fact that during a six- month period in 2000. BankInvest has approved applications from five biotech companies.

An untapped resource

Lisa N Drakeman, CEO, GenmabLisa Drakeman, who is also Senior Vice President in Medarex, not only stresses the financial resources when speaking of the attractive elements for biotechnological companies.

According to Lisa Drakeman, Denmark's wealth of qualified medical professionals who are available to conduct clinical trials makes the country very attractive to biotech companies. Elsewhere, hospitals and clinics are often involved in multiple projects with competing drug developers – resulting in slower, costlier work. In Denmark, the health care system has ample capacity to meet the clinical needs of the biotech industry, which has created one of the most low-cost, high-quality development environments in the world.

A solid biomedical infrastructure

"I've looked into a wide variety of biotech/medical locations around the world and the Danish environment stands out as one of the very best. The biomedical infrastructure here is completely solid – with excellent universities, hospitals and researchers. This joint venture combines Medarex' ground-breaking drug development technology with Denmark's rich biomedical resources and investment capital. As a result, we have a very powerful platform for rapid drug development," Lisa Drakeman states.

Medarex, Inc.

Medarex is a biopharmaceutical company that develops antibody-based drugs for the treatment of various debilitating and life-threatening diseases. The company has developed several technologies for creating antibody therapeutics including the HuMAb-Mouse system. Medarex has its headquarters in New Jersey, USA, where it was founded in 1987. The company is also represented in Europe (Medarex Europe B.V.) and owns the GenPharm company in California, USA. Medarex employs approx. 100 people worldwide.