iBio, Inc., a biotech innovator and biologics contract manufacturing organization, today announced the appointment of Martin B. Brenner, DVM, Ph.D., as its Chief Scientific Officer (“CSO”), effective January 18, 2020. iBio is a company specialised in plant-based biologics manufacturing. Its FastPharming® System combines vertical farming, automated hydroponics, and glycan engineering technologies to rapidly deliver high-quality monoclonal antibodies, vaccines, bioinks and other proteins.
“We are thrilled to have Dr. Brenner join our team,” said Tom Isett, Chairman & CEO of iBio. “Given his prior experience leading organizations with novel protein expression platforms to build proprietary product pipelines, Dr. Brenner should be uniquely suited to assist iBio with a similar transformation. Notably, he also brings a track-record of effective new target search and evaluation, as well as establishing productive collaborations.”
Career
Dr. Brenner has a strong history of success heading drug discovery and development teams at several of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly and Company, Pfizer, and Merck Research Laboratories. Most recently, Dr. Brenner served as the CSO at Pfenex Inc, a NYSEA-listed company which, using its patented Pfēnex Expression Technology® platform, created an advanced pipeline of therapeutic equivalents, vaccines, biologics and biosimilars. Pfenex was acquired by Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated for approximately $516 million in October 2020.
Previously, Dr. Brenner served as the CSO at Recursion Pharmaceuticals, a company focused on accelerating drug discovery for rare diseases and diseases with high unmet medical need. Prior to his time at Recursion, he was Vice President and Head of Research & Early Development at Stoke Therapeutics, a biotechnology company using antisense oligonucleotides to increase gene expression for the treatment of rare diseases. Prior to Stoke, he was Executive Director at Merck, where he built a biotech unit from scratch, focusing his team’s research on diabetes and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Earlier in his career, Dr. Brenner was the Senior Director and Head of cardiovascular, renal, and metabolism (CVRM) biosciences at AstraZeneca. In addition, Dr. Brenner was an Associate Research Fellow at Pfizer where he led the islet biology and in vivo pharmacology in the CVMED Target Exploration Unit before assuming the role of Head of the Insulin Resistance Group.
Further Developments
“It has been captivating to watch the scale, scope and speed with which iBio has successfully transformed itself into a dynamic and diversified biotechnology company,” said Dr. Brenner. “That was made possible by iBio combining its proprietary FastPharming® and Glycaneering™ technologies to better control the way in which its plant-based expression system glycosylates proteins, thereby possibly improving the quality and, potentially in some cases, the efficacy of the biologics it produces. I am looking forward to being part of the iBio team as the Company executes the next stage of its growth strategy and seeks to expand its pipeline of innovative product candidates focused on pulmonology, oncology and fibrotic diseases.”
Dr. Brenner earned his DVM at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and his Ph.D. in Pharmacology at the Veterinary School of Hannover in Hannover, Germany. He received the Lilly Endocrine Research Award of Merit for Science, as well as the Lilly Pinnacle Award for Quality for Good Research Practice.