2023

Mark Levick is the former CEO of Alvotech, a global biopharmaceutical company listed on the US NASDAQ. In addition to building the company’s pipeline, Mark and his team led the approval and commercial launch of Simlandi/Hukyndra in 17 countries. Mark’s expertise was gained through a 25+ year international career leading global research and development groups as Global Head of Development at Sandoz Biopharmaceuticals; Senior Vice President, Global Drug Discovery at Novartis; and Vice-President, Biopharmaceutical Translational Medicine at GSK. Mark oversaw R&D programs that resulted in thirteen drug approvals, including five first-in-class molecules and two approvals arising from successful human proof-of-concept programs. Before joining the industry, Mark was a medical reviewer for the UK and EU medicines regulatory authorities, and a specialist physician- scientist practicing in university hospitals in Australia and the UK. As a researcher at Cambridge University, Mark pioneered the use of reverse genetics to identify novel vaccine targets as well as conducting amongst the earliest in vivo studies using nucleic acid as a novel vaccine platform. Mark has received several awards and authored peer-reviewed papers in the fields of tropical medicine, vaccine immunology and drug development. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (FRCPA), an affiliate physician with the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine in the Royal College of Physicians, UK, and an advisor to the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission. Mark holds a Doctor of Medicine from University of Newcastle, Australia and a PhD from the University of Cambridge.

“Mark brings an extraordinary breadth and depth of experience in drug development to InterAx at a time when we are preparing to advance our pipeline to clinical trials,” noted Dr. Prior, InterAx CEO. “Mark’s scope of experience extends from early preclinical and translational medicine studies to support first-in-human trials all way to approval and the commercial process,” Dr. Prior added.

“I am very attracted to the InterAx drug discovery platform that deciphers the intracellular language that drives biological responses and applying this understanding to create truly novel therapies,” commented Dr. Levick. “I believe InterAx represents the future of drug development and with the aid of AI integrated into biological, biochemical and pharmacological data, this approach promises to reduce conventional timelines for drug development by years,” Dr. Levick added.

Dr. Rizk, InterAx CSO, added, “Dr. Levick brings a tremendous dimension of experience as we discover and develop small, orally-administered molecules with dual functions for treating diseases in a highly novel manner, starting with our cancer and inflammation programs. We are eager to work with Dr. Levick on our development plans, especially given his knowledge of the use of biomarkers as predictors of halting progression of disease.”

The company, a spin-out from ETH Zurich and the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, developed an integrated drug discovery process combining biochemical compound screening, cell pathways mathematical modeling, and artificial intelligence based chemical structure to function relationship. This unique approach enables the rapid and precise identification of novel cellular mechanisms to develop differentiated products that stand out for their effectiveness and safety profiles. This platform unlocks previously intractable targets, shortens timelines for drug discovery from years to months and reduces risks.
The company is specialized in G Protein-Coupled Receptor (GPCR) drug discovery and covers hit-generation, hit- to-lead and lead optimization for all targets including orphan GPCRs. InterAx has a highly experienced and dedicated team of scientists specialized in AI, mathematical models of signaling pathways, cellular pharmacology and computational chemistry. The company is currently funded by lead institutional investors and a grant from the EU commission and is preparing for the next round of financing to grow its capabilities and advance lead drug candidates.

InterAx will leverage its unique discovery platform and deep understanding of GPCR pharmacology to quantify the complex details of GPCR signalling. The objective is to generate evidence to support an informed understanding of this GPCR as a potential new target for therapeutic intervention and to inform a future Sosei Heptares structure-based drug design program.

Aurélien Rizk, co-founder and CSO of InterAx Biotech, said: “Our work with Sosei Heptares is important for InterAx and validates the power of our technology to provide informative outputs in cell signaling, which can be applied to drug discovery. We believe that the identification of drug leads with highly specific biological responses is key to reducing risk and timelines associated with drug development. We are excited to apply our technology on a GPCR target and disease with an unmet medical need where the pathogenesis of the disease is not well understood. This will open new avenues for providing patients with greater opportunities for both effective and safe treatments.”

Alastair Brown, SVP Translational Medicine at Sosei Heptares, said: “Quantitative pharmacology forms an important part of our approach to understand detailed mechanism of action, identify biomarkers and validate new targets. We have been very impressed by InterAx’s innovative technology to decipher the complex language of cellular signalling with respect to GPCRs. We look forward to seeing what novel insights for drug discovery are generated and how these might increase our understanding of the complex biology on this potential new target.”

About InterAx Biotech AG
The company, a spin-out of ETH Zurich and the Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland, uses high throughput biochemical screening of compounds integrated into an artificial intelligence and cell pathways mathematical modeling process. This platform unlocks previously intractable targets, shortens timelines for drug discovery from years to months and reduces risks. The company focuses on the generation and optimization of drugs which trigger a specific and well characterized effect on signaling pathways, thus leading to higher therapeutic efficacy and reduced risk of toxicity. The company is specialized in G Protein-Coupled Receptor (GPCR) drug discovery and covers hit-generation, hit-to-lead and lead optimization for all targets including orphan GPCRs. InterAx has a highly experienced and dedicated team of scientists specialized in AI, mathematical models of signaling pathways, cellular pharmacology and computational chemistry. The company is currently funded by lead institutional investors and a grant from the EU commission and is preparing for the next round of financing to grow its capabilities and advance lead drug candidates.

Dr. Christopher Prior is a highly accomplished serial entrepreneur who has built numerous biotechnology companies creating extensive value for the investors and stakeholders. Over the course of his 30+ year career, he has generated more than 25 Investigational New Drugs (INDs) and achieved four product approvals. In addition, he founded, built and sold two companies (Principia, BioRexis) in deal value exceeding $550M. More recently, Dr. Prior successfully took a company public and significantly increased shareholder value by achieving milestones on time and on budget. Dr. Prior has held senior management positions all in product development at Aventis (now Sanofi), Pfizer, Human Genome Sciences (now GSK) and Biogen. Dr. Prior received a B.Sc. (honors) in chemistry from the University of London, a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Columbia University in New York City and a research fellowship at The Rockefeller Medical Institute.

“InterAx has a unique biosystems approach integrated into artificial intelligence (AI) to decipher cellular response and create novel drugs with high efficacy and safety. I am impressed with the advances the company has made in unlocking new drug targets with improved pharmacology”, Dr. Prior noted. “Developing small orally available cost-effective molecules with same functional effect as peptides, proteins and monoclonal antibodies requiring frequent injections is nothing short of a huge game changer”, added Dr. Prior.

“We are delighted to have Dr. Prior join our team, especially at a time when our platform has discovered a unique chemokine receptor interaction being evaluated in vivo to treat a highly aggressive and difficult to treat form of breast cancer. This validation will take the company into its next stage of development. To our knowledge, no other AI approach to drug discovery addresses both cellular signaling and drug-target interaction, a critical link needed for effective drug discovery. Dr. Prior’s experience in product development and business operations provides a perfect fit with our innovative team of cell biologists and computational scientists”, noted Dr. Aurélien Rizk, InterAx CSO and Co-Founder.

The company, a spin-out of ETH Zurich and the Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland, uses high throughput biochemical screening of compounds integrated into an artificial intelligence and cell pathways mathematical modeling process. This platform unlocks previously intractable targets, shortens timelines for drug discovery from years to months and reduces risks. The company focuses on the generation and optimization of drugs which trigger a specific and well characterized effect on signaling pathways, thus leading to higher therapeutic efficacy and reduced risk of toxicity. The company is specialized in G Protein-Coupled Receptor (GPCR) drug discovery and covers hit-generation, hit-to-lead and lead optimization for all targets including orphan GPCRs. InterAx has a highly experienced and dedicated team of scientists specialized in AI, mathematical models of signaling pathways, cellular pharmacology and computational chemistry. The company is currently funded by lead institutional investors and a grant from the EU commission and is preparing for the next round of financing to grow its capabilities and advance lead drug candidates.