Request Details

DISRUPTING ONE
OF THE LARGEST GLOBAL
HEALTHCARE MARKETS

Dialysis in end-stage renal disease

Learn more
Visionary new non-glucose based osmotic agent in peritoneal dialysis (PD). Adaptable and stable fluid elimination during both short and long dwells. Reduces metabolic stress, such as glucose and insulin spikes, and weight gain. Expected to prolong PD treatment window by slowing glucose-induced peritoneal fibrosis. Improves quality of life.
Kidney failure is a USD 80 BN highly profitable market growing at 4% p.a.
  • 25 million people worldwide are expected to suffer from kidney failure (end-stage renal disease)
  • 3rd fastest global growing cause of death
  • 11th leading global cause of death
  • Renal disease consumes 7% of U.S. Medicare budget

Global Dialysis Market Revenue

Causes of kidney failure
  • Key factors: diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity
  • High blood sugar and high blood pressure damages blood vessels and nephrons (tiny filters) in kidneys, ultimately leading to kidney failure
  • Patients with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) must receive renal replacement therapy (i.e. blood filtration through dialysis or kidney transplantation) to survive
Chronic Kidney Disease ~700m patients worldwide
Kidney Failure (ESRD – end stage renal disease) ~25m patients worldwide

Treated ESRD (Dialysis)
> 2m patients worldwide

Hemodialysis (HD) ~88% of patients
Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) ~12% of patients
Transplantation ~0.5m patients in USA

Kidney Replacement Treatment

Hemodialysis (HD)

Pump and filter

1. Blood is drawn from the patient

2. Blood passes through a dialysis machine container a dialyzer

3. Dialyzer removes toxins, waste products, and extra fluid

4. Cleaned blood is returned to the patient

3-5h of Treatment in a Clinic or Hospital, 3x a Week

  • Time-consuming and limited mobility
  • Side effects: fatigue, cramps, headaches, nausea
  • Vascular access issues over time
  • Fresenius and DaVita are largest players
  • Annual cost per patient: USD 70’000*

*Global average. Source: Dialysis market – global industry trends, share, size, growth, opportunity and forecast 2022-2027, imarc report; Beaudry, et al., doi: 10.2215/CJN.10180917

Peritoneal dialysis (PD)

Soft cleaning process using the patient’s peritoneal membrane as a filter

1.  A cleansing fluid (dialysate) is introduced into the patient’s abdomen through a surgically implanted catheter.

2. The dialysate remains in the body for several hours, allowing waste products and excess fluids to pass from the blood into the solution.

3. After the dwell time, the used dialysate, now containing waste products, is drained out.

Conveniently performed at home, at work, while travelling Performed 3 times manually during the day and 1 time automatically overnight using a machine called a cycler.
  • Greater flexibility and independence
  • Less time-consuming
  • Higher first year survival rate (2-fold higher)
  • Extended treatment duration
  • Significantly better outcome for patients with heart failure (10% of dialysis patients)
  • Better preservation of kidney function, gentler on the body
  • Cost-effective: reduced need for infrastructure and personnel
  • Annual Cost per patient: USD 40’000*

HOW PERITONEAL
DIALYSIS (PD) WORKS

Filling

Dwelling

Draining

Repeats per day

PD IS THE BETTER TREATMENT OPTION, BUT HAS CURRENT LIMITATIONS, OPENING A MARKET OPPORTUNITY FOR OPTERION

Current daytime dwell solutions for PD rely on glucose, leading to metabolic health issues, specifically for diabetic patients (45% of dialysis patients).

  • Glucose Absorption: patients absorb 100-300g of glucose per day (36-110kg per year), equivalent to consuming 3-8 cans of Coca-Cola® daily.
  • Peritoneum Deterioration: the glucose load and high osmotic pressure cause serious deterioration of the peritoneum, shortening the treatment life.
  • Metabolic Impact: glucose absorption leads to weight gain and high insulin spikes, causing inflammation in the body.
  • Icodextrin® (Baxter): is based on complex polysaccharides, lacking the osmotic power required for day dwells.

OPTERION ODR IS A NON-GLUCOSE BASED OSMOTIC DRIVER FOR DAY AND NIGHT DWELLS

Fast acting, with continuous fluid elimination during day and night dwells

  • Personalized therapy due to different concentrations
  •  Reduced insulin response
  •  Novel patent-protected composition
  • Comprising Decadextrin – the Opterion new polysaccharide – and maltose
shutterstock_Freisteller-neu_214863570522 Kopie (1)
THE GAME CHANGER – OPTERION NON-GLUCOSE BASED OSMOTIC DRIVER – FOR DAY AND NIGHT DWELLS

Constant fluid elimination during short and long dwells

Group 395
  • Efficient ultrafiltration and clearance at every dwell
  • Improved patients’ quality of life

Fast acting, non-glucose-based osmotic driver

Group 395

Reduced weight gain, glucose, and insulin blood levels

Fast and efficient dialysis at reduced osmotic pressure

Group 395

Peritoneal membrane is protected and prolonges treatment duration

Flexible osmotic strength (different concentrations available)

Group 395

Optimal adaptation for patients’ dialysis needs

Polysaccharide osmotic driver with near-neutral pH

Group 395
  • Residual renal function preserved
  • No/low pain during dwell time

Less Glucose Degradation Products (GDP)

Group 395

Peritoneal membrane protected (reduced risk of peritonitis, longer PD use, preserved residual renal function)

Combination of all

  • Decreased dialysis side effects and improved quality of life
  • Prolonged PD therapy duration
  • Increasing attractivity of PD as dialysis therapy vs HD
  • Cost savings
Industry experts – who have successfully managed and exited biotech companies

Management Team

Peter Reinemer Ph.D. MBA

Chief Executive Officer

Guido Grentzmann Ph.D.

Chief Scientific Officer / Founder

Ulrike Grimm Ph.D.

Chief of Staff / Head Project Management

Maxim Voropaiev M.D.

Chief Medical Officer

Daniel Lustenberger CPA, EMBA

Chief Financial Officer

Mylène Fleurant M.Sc.

Head Quality Assurance

Marc Willuhn Ph.D., MBA

Head CMC / Manufacturing

Board of Directors

David Ebsworth Ph.D.

Chairman

Ricardo Cordero Ph.D.

Vice Chairman

Jan-Anders Karlsson Ph.D.

Board Member

Opterion – disrupting
one of the largest global healthcare markets

Request Details

Peter Reinemer Ph.D. MBA

Chief Executive Officer

Peter Reinemer, PhD, MBA, has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company as of February 2023. He joined Opterion in July 2021 as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and will assume this position in addition to his new role for the time being.

Peter has more than 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, and began his career at Bayer Pharma, where he spent over 10 years in discovery research in Germany and Japan. He subsequently served as Chief Scientific Officer, Head of Business Development, Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President, Corporate Development, of Proteros, a discovery services company based in Munich and Boston. He co-founded IMD Natural Solutions, developer of the all-natural preservative agent Nagardo®, which was acquired by Lanxess AG in 2017. Peter holds a Master in Chemistry, a PhD from the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry/TU Munich (Structural Biology, Prof. Dr. Robert Huber), and an MBA.

Guido Grentzmann Ph.D.

Chief Scientific Officer / Founder

Dr Guido Grenzmann, PhD, is the founder of Opterion Health and has more than 25 years of experience in Pharma R&D and Project Management. After academic work on bacterial and viral mechanisms of translational regulation, he became Group Leader Molecular Biology/Genomics at Pfizer and Director Biochemistry/GeneProfiling at Altana Pharma where he worked in Discovery of inflammation in respiratory diseases. In 2007 he founded PBS PharmaBioServices providing contract research and consulting mainly in inflammatory diseases, in multiple therapeutic domains. 2012, Guido founded Opterion, with the aim to develop a new PD solution, to decrease side-effects of this promising therapy.
 

Ulrike Grimm Ph.D.

Chief of Staff / Head Project Management

Opterion Health engaged Ulrike Grimm in June 2020 to establish project excellence for its development program.

Ulrike started her career as a sales representative for Sanol Pharma and joined Merck KGaA in 1997, where she held roles of increasing responsibility starting as team leader for R&D projects and continuing as product leader for Merck’s second commercial oncology drug.

From 2007 to 2010 she was the Vice President of Project and Portfolio Management at Fresenius Biotech. Ulrike joined Vifor Pharma in 2010 and served as the Vice President for Project and Alliance Management as well as Clinical Operations during the next eight years. In 2019 Ulrike started her own consulting company Pro2S AG.

Maxim Voropaiev, M.D

Chief Medical Officer

Maxim Voropaiev joined Opterion in November 2023 as Chief Medical Officer (CMO). Maxim has 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry in global, strategic roles with increasing responsibilities in clinical development, medical affairs, and statistics.

Having worked in multiple therapeutic areas (oncology, kidney disease, gastroenterology, autoimmune/inflammatory diseases, neurological disease and respiratory tract) at the headquarters of companies like Novartis, Vifor Pharma (now CSL) and Bayer, Maxim has built a unique set of skills geared towards the excellence in clinical studies design and execution. Maxim holds a medical doctor (MD) degree and a master degree (MAS) in statistics.

Daniel Lustenberger CPA, EMBA

Chief Financial Officer

Daniel Lustenberger is an experienced international finance, accounting and management consulting professional and joined Opterion Health in September 2021 as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). He is a Swiss Certified Public Accountant, holds an Executive MBA from IMD in Lausanne and has 20 years of life sciences and technology experience.

Daniel supports several start-ups and growth companies, particularly in the life sciences and high tech sectors, as a part-time CFO, business advisor and board member. Prior to Opterion, he held senior finance positions with Vifor Pharma, Gategroup and DKSH. In his early career, he spent several years with PwC, providing advisory services in M&A, IPOs, process and system improvements, corporate governance and risk management.

Mylène Fleurant M.Sc.

Head Quality Assurance

Mylène Fleurant joined Opterion Health in July 2021 as Head of Quality having spent more than 20 years in leading quality (QA) functions in the life sciences industry. She worked for 10 years as Region Head Quality Europe at Novartis and implemented global quality systems at Merck Serono. Prior to founding her own consulting company in 2019, Mylène was Global Head of QA at Novimmune and VP Quality Affairs at Alvotech.

Mylène is a chemical engineer and holds a master’s degree from the University of Sherbrooke, Canada, as well as a degree in Quality Assurance Management from L’Ecole de Technologie Supérieure (ETS) at the University of Quebec.

Marc Willuhn Ph.D., MBA

Head CMC / Manufacturing

Marc Willuhn joined Opterion in January 2023 as Head of CMC. Marc has more than 20 years of experience in drug development for global markets. He has an outstanding track record in pharmaceutical product development, resulting in several approved products. Marc held senior leadership roles at Fresenius Kabi and Baxter Healthcare before founding his own company in 2018, providing technical and strategic consulting services to life sciences companies. Marc holds a master’s degree in chemistry (Gerhard-Mercator-University Duisburg, Germany) and a PhD in organic chemistry from the Max-Planck-Institute for Coal Research in Mülheim/Ruhr, Germany. He completed postdoctoral studies at the Faculté de Pharmacie in Paris, France, and also holds an MBA.

Dr David Ebsworth, Ph.D.

Chairman

Dr David Ebsworth, PhD, has been Chairman of Opterion Health since December 2016. David has over 40 years of experience in the Pharma, Healthcare and Biotech industry. David is a past CEO of Galenica, Vifor Pharma as well as Oxford GlycoSciences and past global head of the Pharmaceutical Division of Bayer. He has chaired several private and public companies and has served on numerous boards as either chairman of the audit, remuneration or nominations and governance committees. David is currently Chairman of Verona Pharma, which recently reached a $2 billion valuation following FDA approval for the first maintenance treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in more than 20 years. He also serves as Chairman of Actimed Therapeutics.

Ricardo Cordero, Ph.D

Vice Chairman

Dr Ricardo Cordero, PhD, serves as Vice Chairman of Opterion Health since 2016. Ricardo has over 30 years of experience in the Financial Services Industry where he held various senior positions, for example as CEO of BZ Bank, Managing Partner at Reichmuth & Co Investmentfonds AG, Co-founder and Co-CEO at BWO Bank, etc. Further, he is a passionate and experienced private Swiss investor and holds various investments in the Life Science, Technology and high-end Consumer Goods industry.

Jan-Anders Karlsson Ph.D.

Board Member

Dr Jan-Anders Karlsson, PhD, has 40 years of experience as a CEO and board member in pharma and biotech companies in Europe, Asia and the US. Jan-Anders was a founder and CEO of Reset Pharmaceuticals Inc, and prior to this served as CEO of Verona Pharma, a NASDAQ-listed biopharmaceutical company developing respiratory drugs. As CEO of S*BIO Pte Ltd, he focused on the discovery and development of drugs for the treatment of cancer – its product Vonjo (pacritinib) is approved in the US. Prior to S*BIO, he was Head of Pharma Global Research at Bayer Healthcare AG and held positions in Rhone-Poulenc Rorer and Astra AB. Jan-Anders received a doctorate in Medical Science (PhD) in Clinical Experimental Pharmacology from the University of Lund, Sweden.

Investor Information Request

Thank you for your interest in learning more about our investment opportunities. Please fill out the form below, and a member of our team will get back to you with the information you need.

Jan Anders Karlsson

Board Member
Dr Jan-Anders Karlsson, PhD, has 40 years of experience as a CEO and board member in pharma and biotech companies in Europe, Asia and the US. Jan-Anders was a founder and CEO of Reset Pharmaceuticals Inc, and prior to this served as CEO of Verona Pharma, a NASDAQ-listed biopharmaceutical company developing respiratory drugs. As CEO of S*BIO Pte Ltd, he focused on the discovery and development of drugs for the treatment of cancer – its product Vonjo (pacritinib) is approved in the US. Prior to S*BIO, he was Head of Pharma Global Research at Bayer Healthcare AG and held positions in Rhone-Poulenc Rorer and Astra AB. Jan-Anders received a doctorate in Medical Science (PhD) in Clinical Experimental Pharmacology from the University of Lund, Sweden.

Andreas Schmidt

Board Member

Andreas Schmid has more than 25 years of experience in Finance in the Life Sciences. He worked as a Pharma Analyst at Merrill Lynch and also has experience in fund raising as well as business development.

During the span of his career Andreas was one of the highest-ranked dialysis and generic pharma analysts, with special expertise in European and CEE/emerging markets. His coverage universe included companies such as Fresenius/FMC (Germany), Gambro (Sweden), Stada (Germany) and Aspen (South Africa). Furthermore, he played a major part in the IPOs of Zentiva (Czech Republic) and Hikma (Jordan). Andreas has also been active as a speaker at various industry conferences, for example in New York, Frankfurt, but also in Warsaw and other Eastern European countries.

In addition, Andreas works as finance lecturer at the Hochschule Pforzheim and is a board member of the German shareholder association SdK.

Ricardo Cordero

Vice Chairman
Dr Ricardo Cordero, PhD, serves as Vice Chairman of Opterion Health since 2016. Ricardo has over 30 years of experience in the Financial Services Industry where he held various senior positions, for example as CEO of BZ Bank, Managing Partner at Reichmuth & Co Investmentfonds AG, Co-founder and Co-CEO at BWO Bank, etc. Further, he is a passionate and experienced private Swiss investor and holds various investments in the Life Science, Technology and high-end Consumer Goods industry.

David Ebsworth

Chairman
Dr David Ebsworth, PhD, has been Chairman of Opterion Health since December 2016. David has over 40 years of experience in the Pharma, Healthcare and Biotech industry. David is a past CEO of Galenica, Vifor Pharma as well as Oxford GlycoSciences and past global head of the Pharmaceutical Division of Bayer. He has chaired several private and public companies and has served on numerous boards as either chairman of the audit, remuneration or nominations and governance committees. David is currently Chairman of Verona Pharma and Actimed Therapeutics.