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Elmar Schnee resigns from Merck KGaA's Board ... and Chemgenex?

Wolf G Kroner

Darmstadt, 13-12-2010. Merck Serono’s Chief Executive Officer and General Partner of Merck KGaA is resigning from his duties for ”personal reasons” end of year, his company told in a press release today. The leave of Mr. Schnee comes as surprise given his continued merits in profitably streamlining Merck’s pharma divisions and changing Serono’s culture of youthful impetuosity to a more sustainable one embodied by the Merck family. He is followed by Stefan J. Oschmann who has been lately President of Emerging Markets of Merck & Co, and will move from MSD’s headquarters at Whitehouse Station, New Jersey (US) to Darmstadt beginning January 2011.

(C) Wolf G Kroner 2010 Mr. Schnee (51) is a marketing veteran in the pharmaceutical industry where we worked with Fisons Pharmaceutical, Sanofi-Synthélabo, and UCB Pharma before joining Merck in 2003. He started as Managing Director of Merck Santé SAS at Lyon (FR) with responsibilities to commercialise Merck’s prescription medicines and managing distribution alliances. Since 2006 he is General Partner of Merck KGaA. In the group he is responsible for the pharmaceutical business including consumer healthcare. Currently, one of Mr. Schnee’s very few external duties is with ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals (ASX: CXS; American Depository receipts: CXSPY). Since 2007 he is Director of Board of this company and the architect of acquiring shares for Merck. With 8.49% Merck Santé is CXS’ third largest shareholder. This has raised questions, how the resignation will affect ChemGenex.

Chemgenex is rapidly approaching the market stage and aims for a global reach. Its most advanced drug candidate is omacetaxine mepesuccinate (trade name: OMAPRO) for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). It is directed to Philadelphia chromosome positive chronic myeloid leukaemia in patients who have the T315I Bcr-Abl kinase domain mutation and who are resistant to prior therapy of Novartis’ imatinib (trade name: Glivec). In fall 2008 the company already established European operations at Lyon to pursue EU marketing authorisation of OMAPRO and has received an orphan drug designation meanwhile. With expectations of approval by EMEA ChemGenex has entered with Hospira into a marketing agreement for Europe, the Middle East and parts of Africa in December 2009. In the United States ChemGenex intends to commercialise itself the drug. However, in March it experienced a setback in the US as an FDA advisory committee recommended submission of ”a well characterized” diagnostic test instead of the ones used in previous trials in order to identify patients with the mutation prior to approval of the drug. In this situation CXS is to benefit more than ever from Elmar Schnee’s advice as he “will continue to support Chemgenex on the board of directors”, at least during the next 12 months Dr Greg Collier, the company’s CEO told B2Bioworld.

Given the abrupt departure in conjunction with the rapid nomination of Dr. Oschmann to Mr. Schnee’s post, observers say, that the present resignation might be more related to internal dynamics of Merck than to external companies, a view which Mr. Schnee is confirming. Asked about his plans, in particular with regard to Chemgenex Pharmaceuticals, he told B2Bioworld: ”I will have to take it apart, if I have a moment to spare. Up to now I have been fully occupied, and then, we’ll see.”

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Preparing for Another Level of Innovation

How does Novartis use stem cell patents? How does it view peers like Pfizer engaging in this field? Interview with Dr Mark Fishman, President of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research and Member of the Executive Committee of Novartis, February 2009.

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Stem Cell Insights Collection 2010

Issues and Evaluation from Pharma Leaders

How does the pharma industry view application of stem cell technologies? Where are R&D efforts needed, and where does academic research not fulfill expectations? What is the role of suppliers in the field?

Read fresh answers from the leaders, provided exclusively to readers of B2Bioworld. Published only here, and all in one.

(C) Boehringer Ingelheim (C) Wolf G Kroner 2009 (C) Hoffmann-La Roche 2009

We are obliged to more and more move away from animal models
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Preparing for Another Level of Innovation
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Clear away complete confusion of terms
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Stem Cells: a discovery tool and a potential therapeutic modality
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It really started last year…
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Stem Cells and Vaccines Production
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Doing our business a little bit differently than the others in the industry
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Triggering Regenerative Functions with Transplanted Cells and Small Molecules
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Stem Cell Research in GlaxoSmithKline and Beyond
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Stem Cells – Failings and Deliveries
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– Dr David C Hay, University of Edinburgh, MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine

L’Oréal avance dans les cellules souches
- Report by Hélène Guyot (with summary in English)

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Novartis: Adhering to Values Pays off

Novartis continues to expand the biotech therapeutics pipeline / Focus on emerging markets

Dr. Daniel Vasella 28-01-2009. Presenting financial results 2008 Novartis’ management board outlines its strategy, and comments on competitors. Largely overlooked are the donation programs and its impact on the firm and emerging pharmaceutical markets.

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REALATED ARTICLES

Elmar Schnee resigns from Merck KGaA's Board ... and Chemgenex?

Preparing for Another Level of Innovation

Stem Cell Insights Collection 2010

Issues and Evaluation from Pharma Leaders

Novartis: Adhering to Values Pays off

Novartis continues to expand the biotech therapeutics pipeline / Focus on emerging markets

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