Harvard Business Case

Friday, 28 June 2024, 09:15 - 12:00

About Tim Knotnerus | CEO, AgomAb Therapeutics

Tim is CEO and member of the Board of Directors of Agomab Therapeutics, a Belgian biotech company focusing on growth factor biology and developing therapeutics for fibrotic indications. Together with the team, he has raised $240 million and developed a broad pipeline since joining Agomab in 2019. Prior to Agomab, Tim held the position of VP Corporate Development at AM-Pharma where he and the team executed a Phase IIb trial in patients with acute kidney injury, secured a $600M option-to-buy deal with Pfizer and raised significant private financing rounds. Prior to that, Tim was a Senior Associate at Aescap Venture, a VC fund investing in European medical companies. Tim received the CEO of the year award by European Lifestars, was selected as an Endpoints 20 under 40 and In Vivo rising leader and is a Termeer Fellow. He holds an executive MBA from IMD, where he was named Valedictorian, and earned two Master degree programs from Utrecht University.

Harvard Business Case

AM-Pharma is a biotech company developing a medicine for patients with acute kidney injury. The case describes the company's journey from inception in 2001 to a large deal with Pfizer in 2015. The aim is to discuss the value creation of AM-Pharma through its strategic decisions over time. It highlights the patient journey, company challenges, market size potential, and how the management team was able to raise multiple financing rounds from venture capitalists. It further provides the readers with a unique insight in the key risks and operational challenges of a biotech company and the value of an experienced management team backed by strong investors. The drug development process is inherently risky, long and expensive and the probability of commercializing a new drug is very low. The company's CEO is the protagonist and the case is split in three parts to provide the readers with surprises and open strategic questions which are time related. The case is semi-chronologically and a patient story is intermingled to provide a different perspective on clinical trials, ethical dilemmas and the high unmet medical need for new therapies. The case ends with a valuation simulation, in which the readers can negotiate the AM-Pharma/Pfizer deal themselves.