Novo Holdings establishes rare bleeding disorder firm Hemab

Novo Holdings’ early-stage investment and company creation team Novo Seeds has established a new portfolio company – Hemab – which will focus on the development of bispecific antibodies for rare bleeding disorders.

The company, co-founded by former Novo Nordisk executives Johan Faber and Søren Bjørn, has secured an exclusive license to certain intellectual property to develop a product within haemophilia and other rare bleeding disorders from Novo Nordisk.

Hemab has also scored an exclusive license to Genmab’s bispecific DuoBody platform technology, which will help the company to develop further novel therapies for ultra-rare bleeding disorders.

"We are very pleased to have Novo Seeds on board as investor and partner to accelerate the development of our exciting new technology platform,” said Johan Faber, co-founder and chief executive officer of Hemab.

“We are passionate about developing novel therapies for people with severe bleeding disorders that are in high need for a prophylactic treatment option that is effective, safe and convenient. With the hands-on support of Novo Seeds we have a strong foundation to realize our ambitions for patients with rare bleeding disorders,” he added.

Jørgen Søberg Petersen, Novo Seeds Partner, will join Henmab as chairman and Camilla Petrycer Hansen, Novo Seeds Senior Associate, will also join the board.

In addition, Benny Sørensen, will join the board as an independent non-executive director.

Sørensen currently serves as senior vice president, head of clinical development at Codiak BioSciences.