Affimed is led by an internationally-experienced management team with extensive backgrounds in the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology industries:
Chief Executive Officer: Dr. Rolf H. Günther, MD, PhD
Dr. Günther joined Affimed with over 21 years of Pharmaceutical industry experience. Previously, he was Vice President and General Manager of the Critical Care Business Unit of Aventis Behring, one of the world's leading companies specializing in the business of plasma products. He joined Aventis Behring as Vice President of Global Clinical Research and Development in 1996, with responsibility for successful drug approvals in the US and Europe, and became acting head of worldwide R&D in 2001.
Dr. Günther has an extensive background in product development, biologics, and specialty pharmaceuticals. He has held senior positions in marketing, R&D, strategy, operations and general management at Aventis and its predecessor companies.
Chief Scientific Officer: Prof. Dr. Melvyn Little, PhD, Biochemist
Prof. Little is the founder of Affimed. After postdoctoral work on the mechanism of action of estradiol at the Max-Planck-Institute for Cell Biology in Wilhelmshaven, he joined the scientific staff of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg and habilitated at the Faculty of Biology, University Heidelberg ("Structure and Function of Microtubule Proteins"). In 1990, he became head of the "Recombinant Antibodies" research group at the DKFZ and was a co-founder of the firm Affitech in Oslo. Prof. Dr. Little has been an invited speaker at numerous international congresses on the subject of antibody engineering, and in May 2001, he gave the keynote address at the international congress "Expression and Production of Recombinant Antibodies", in Munich. Together with Dr. Tomlinson (CSO of Domantis, UK), he was co-initiator of the "1st International Recombinant Antibody Congress", which took place in Berlin in May 2002.
Chief Financial Officer: Dr. Florian Fischer, MBA, PhD
Dr. Fischer is 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.
Chief Medical Officer: Dr. Miroslav Ravic, MD, PhD
Dr. Ravic, Managing Director of Pharma Integra Limited, a London-based Biotechnology consultancy, is a medical professional with thirty years of combined experience in clinical practice, medical science and drug development of biologics and small molecules. Dr. Ravic was Chief Clinical Officer at Antisoma, where he was responsible for the design and implementation of their global program of clinical trials for anti-cancer drugs. In total, Dr. Ravic has been responsible for almost 100 clinical trials (phases I - IV). Prior to Antisoma, Dr. Ravic was European Head of Clinical Research and Development at the Japanese company, Eisai. Before joining Eisai, he worked at Boehringer Ingelheim and held various academic and clinical positions.
Vice President Business Development: Gavin Clark
Gavin Clark has worked in the pharma industry for 29 years and is co-founder and senior partner of Procela Partners Limited – a Dublin based Biotech Consultancy. Trained as a chemist before starting a career in business development, he has worked in various senior commercial roles at J&J, Bayer, CIBA-GEIGY, GlaxoWellcome, Phares Drug Delivery and Tibotec-Virco. After the latter was acquired by J&J in 2002 he founded Procela to work with US and EU based early stage biotechs. His licensing experience encompasses global, regional, drug delivery, and generics deals from both the big and the small side of the table.