The former managing director of Bavarian Nordic and co-founder of NeuroSearch, Peter Wulff, is starting a new biotech company, which will be based in Malaysia and also have an office in Copenhagen. The company is called Sentinext Therapeutics Sdn Bhd and will focus on developing a vaccine against the infection disease EV71, which annually causes epidemics, mainly in the tropics.
According to Peter Wulff, it is difficult to put a figure on how big of a market there is for the product but he is sure, that if the demand is there the project succeeds.
– It is an infectious disease which spreads very rapidly. The last ten years we have seen epidemics spread in many areas in Asia and every time millions get infected. One should remember that the disease spreads in an area of the world where purchasing power is soaring due to a rapidly growing middle class,” Peter Wulff says to RB-Børsen. He also explains that the vaccine against EV71 is directed towards both public and private buyers.
Sentinext is funded by two venture funds that have thrown 60 million DKK into the project which will keep the company running for two to three years. Hereafter new capital will be put into the company, and according to Peter Wulff it is not unthinkable that the two funds will throw even more money into Sentinext.
Besides focusing on EV71 Sentinext will also start programs that deals with diseases such as malaria, yellow fever and cerebrospinal meningitis. The company’s goal is a stock market listing in Malaysia and two products in phase-2 clinical development within five years.
