Frankfurt Benedikt von Braunmühl has big plans: The Munich biopharmaceutical company HMNC Brain Health, which he runs, wants to usher in a new era in the treatment of depression. Precision psychiatry is the key word: in a large-scale clinical study, a personalized therapeutic approach in the treatment of depression is to be tested from next year.
“Precision Therapy” has long been established in oncology: a diagnostic test determines whether a cancer patient has a certain mutation so that he or she is eligible for a specific treatment or not. So far, there is no such thing in the treatment of depression.
“The traditional ‘one size fits all’ treatment models do not work for many patients,” says von Braunmühl in an interview with Handelsblatt. “We understand the interface between genetics and depression and we want to base our targeted treatments on this.”
The experienced pharmaceutical and diagnostics expert has been running the company with 15 employees since May of this year. He is part of an overall expanded management team that is positioning the previously very research-oriented biopharmaceutical company in the direction of commercialization and market readiness. An important driver of this realignment is the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Franz Humer, former CEO of the Swiss Roche Group, who is one of the pioneers in personalized medicine.
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HMNC Brain Health was founded in 2010 by the internationally known depression researcher Florian Holsboer and entrepreneur Carsten Maschmeyer. The initials stand for “Holsboer Maschmeyer Neurochemie”. In contrast to biotech companies, HMNC does not research and develop its own drugs, but looks for new uses for preparations that have already been researched and tested.
The experienced pharmaceutical and diagnostics expert and his executive team are to position the company in the direction of commercialization and market readiness.
(Photo: HMNC Brain Health)
For example, the drug Nelivabon was in-licensed by the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi. There it had not produced the desired effect in studies. Holsboer, long-time director of the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry in Munich, found the reason in his research: Nelivabon is only effective in a certain group of patients, namely those who have an elevated level of the hormone vasopressin.
So a diagnostic test was developed to filter out this group of patients, who make up around 30 percent of the total. A large-scale clinical study to show that this personalized depression therapy with Nelivabon works is what HMNC Brain Health plans to start next year.
In a further study, the company will investigate to what extent the anesthetic ketamine has a depressive effect in a lower dose. The focus is on patients who are resistant to standard antidepressants. Both studies are in the second clinical study phase. In total, a drug must successfully complete three study phases in order for an application for approval to be submitted.
HMNC has raised fresh money for studies
Von Braunmühl hopes that both studies on ketamine and Nelivabon will have positive results after just a few months. They are carried out by large contract organizations. HMNC recently raised the money for the studies in a new financing round of over nine million euros, bringing the total of the funds raised to date to 28 million euros.
The capital increase in the form of a convertible bond was provided by family offices, including those of Carsten Maschmeyer, the Jahr family and the finance and real estate entrepreneur Guntard Gutmann.
And then there was also a strategic investor. Wilhelm Beier, founder and majority shareholder of the pharmaceutical company Dermapharm, invested a mid-single-digit million amount. “HMNC Brain Health is a true pioneer in individualized therapy for mental illnesses,” says Beier. He has followed the development of the company over the past few years: from the scientific approach of depression researcher Holsboer to the first clinical studies to the large-scale financing round with which the company now wants to advance its strategic agenda.
He is convinced that HMNC Brain Health is on the right track to help many millions of patients, says Beier: “The approach of tailoring treatments and active ingredients to patients is the future of medicine – also and especially for depression.”
Braunmühl’s head of the company, on the other hand, is pleased about the strategic input from his new investor: “Wilhelm Beier is an entrepreneur in the pharmaceutical market and a sales professional. He has a good feel for market developments and innovations. ”
Mental health, von Braunmühl is certain, will be the next big wave in the health industry. The corona pandemic certainly also contributes to this. “According to the WHO, depression will have overtaken cancer as the most commonly diagnosed disease by 2030. The socio-economic impact is estimated at six trillion dollars, ”says von Braunmühl.
Going public is also an option
HMNC wants to play a leading role in the treatment of depression, so the company boss is now pushing the pace. Von Braunmühl is already in talks with international investors in order to secure the financing for the expensive, approval-relevant studies.
“If everything goes as planned, the phase 3 study for ketamine could start in mid-2023 and that for Nelivabon at the end of 2023. We then want to set up the studies in the USA too, because that is the largest and most important market for us, ”explains von Braunmühl. Overall, HMNC Brain Health is aiming for a funding round of at least $ 50 million.
He sees the future of HMNC in further development as an independent company. The sale of a drug project to Big Pharma is rather unlikely, but von Braunmühl can well imagine a cooperation. “Biontech and Pfizer provide a good example of what a successful collaboration can look like,” he says.
An IPO could also be an option: von Braunmühl is convinced that one day the topic will also have to be discussed. “But now let’s concentrate on the new round of financing,” he says.
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