Covagen

About Covagen

Covagen AG, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, was established in 2007 as a spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich). The company was founded by Dr. Julian Bertschinger and Dr. Dragan Grabulovski, who met while pursuing their respective PhDs in protein engineering and pharmaceutical sciences at ETH Zurich. Their journey began after winning a premier Swiss business plan competition, which led to a seed investment of 1 million CHF from the Novartis Venture Fund.

The core of Covagen's business was its proprietary Fynomer platform. Fynomers are small, engineered binding proteins derived from a human protein that can be fused to antibodies. This fusion creates bispecific molecules called "FynomAbs," which can bind to two different targets simultaneously. This technology was designed to create therapeutics with new mechanisms of action, primarily for treating inflammatory diseases and cancer. The company's business model revolved around leveraging this platform for in-house drug development and entering into strategic collaborations with other pharmaceutical companies. For example, Covagen secured a significant discovery pact with Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. to develop FynomAbs for autoimmune and inflammatory conditions.

Covagen's lead product candidate was COVA322, a bispecific FynomAb designed to block two key inflammatory cytokines, TNF-alpha and IL-17A. This therapeutic was developed for a range of inflammatory diseases, with an initial focus on psoriasis, for which it entered Phase Ib clinical trials. The ability to create tailored, multi-specific drugs represented the key benefit and selling point of the Fynomer technology. After several successful funding rounds, including a CHF 42 million Series B financing, Covagen attracted significant interest from larger pharmaceutical players. In August 2014, in a deal brokered by Johnson & Johnson's London Innovation Center, Covagen was acquired by Cilag GmbH International, an affiliate of Janssen, the pharmaceutical arm of Johnson & Johnson. Following the acquisition, Julian Bertschinger remained with the company and later took on innovation leadership roles within Johnson & Johnson, while Dragan Grabulovski transitioned into consulting for other biotech startups.