Maxion Therapeutics has hired Dr Stefan Härtle as its new Chief Development Officer, a move that reflects the company’s push toward clinical development of its KnotBody® platform.
Härtle brings close to two decades of drug development experience, having held senior roles at MorphoSys, most recently as Head of Clinical Pharmacology, and contributing to multiple antibody programs including tafasitamab and felzartamab. MorphoSys was acquired by Novartis for 2.9 billion US dollars (£2.26 billion) in early 2024.
His background covers a wide spectrum of clinical and regulatory areas, from early stage trials through to post marketing studies. He has also served on the scientific advisory board of HI Bio, which was acquired by Biogen last year.
Maxion’s CEO, Arndt Schottelius, said the hire comes at a key moment for the company: “Stefan’s experience is exactly what we need as we prepare to take our first candidates into clinical trials.”
Härtle said he was drawn to the potential of Maxion’s KnotBody® technology, which fuses antibodies with knottin peptides to target ion channels and GPCRs, two families of proteins that have long been considered challenging to drug. “There’s a real opportunity here to develop therapies that go beyond what conventional antibodies can do."
The company raised 72 million US dollars (£56 million) in Series A funding earlier this year, giving it the runway to move its lead programs into human testing.
