Appreciating the value of science

Today, more than half of all innovative substances no longer come from the laboratories of large pharmaceutical companies; instead, they are initially developed by academic researchers and in biotech firms. This is due to a fundamental change in drug development: Drugs used to be developed to treat a particular disease without looking at differences between people. In future, particularly for cancer patients, highly personalized treatment approaches will increasingly be introduced into clinical practice. That means that drug development is increasingly taking account of the individual variety of tumors and is more and more frequently based on close links between basic research and clinical research.

By creating the new position of Chief Innovation Officer, DKFZ is rising to this challenge and setting the course to ensure that results from its research laboratories find their way to clinical application – and to commercialization – more often and faster. "Our research laboratories create value: The results of cancer research are valuable for the patients and at the same time are very important from an economic point of view. Rainer Wessel has 25 years of experience as a manager in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector and is the ideal candidate to leverage these valuable results," remarked Ursula Weyrich, Administrative Director of DKFZ.

"Our aim is to identify and evaluate projects with translational potential at an early stage across the whole breadth of research at DKFZ. We not only look at drug development, but also at new diagnostic methods and increasingly at cancer prevention methods. For promising projects, we then aim to build sustainable bridges as an effective way of taking them from the world of academic research into new realms of industrial research and development," Rainer Wessel explained, outlining the goals of the Innovation Management division.

Suitable "bridges" include new start-ups in which scientists are involved: Here, highly specialized experts work on translating and commercializing their own research results. In doing so, they are more flexible and less averse to taking risks than the large pharmaceutical companies. DKFZ now aims to provide intensive support for these kinds of spin-offs by offering tailored advice and opening up financing options.

Wessel also plans to increase strategic partnerships with the pharmaceutical industry, similar to the long-standing successful cooperation between DKFZ and Bayer Healthcare.

Rainer Wessel studied biology in Münster and Heidelberg and obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Konstanz with a scholarship from the Boehringer Ingelheim Fund. He subsequently received a two-year scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to study in Osaka and Tokyo. Following international professional experience working at Boehringer Ingelheim and Qiagen in the field of patents and licensing, he became CEO of the biotech companies Axxima and Ganymed, where he was responsible for corporate development and financing. Before joining DKFZ, Rainer Wessel spent five years as director of the Ci3 leading-edge cluster focusing on cancer and infection research in the Rhine-Main region and as managing director of MIM-Deutschland GmbH, where he was responsible for advising technology firms.

A picture of Rainer Wessel is available for download:
www.dkfz.de/de/presse/pressemitteilungen/2020/bilder/Wessel_Rainer.jpg 

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