Building a Business During a Pandemic: Q&A with Professor Niels Riedemann, MD

Professor Niels Riedemann, MD
Founder
InflaRX

Pharmaceutical Executive: What inspired you to found your own company?
Professor Niels Riedemann, MD: To be honest, I never thought I would start my own company. First and foremost a physician and a surgeon, this is what I’ve been trained in. However, the research I conducted with my colleague at a Michigan lab, and now business partner, Dr. Renfeng Guo, on how the complement system functions and can be modulated during an immune response changed that. When we saw the results that were coming out of the lab and how they might someday impact patient care, we realized we had to bring them to clinic, and that is what led me to founding a company.

PE: How has the industry changed since the pandemic?
Riedemann: Well, for one, we are no longer in a state of emergency fighting off a virus we know very little about. Now, we know a lot about SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses, perhaps more than we thought possible before 2020. Also, as the healthcare industry returns to a steadier pace, many areas within it are also returning to their pre-pandemic priorities. During the height of the pandemic, certain diseases and therapies were sidelined as efforts were shifted towards finding therapies for COVID-19. This includes dermatological indications that we have found may be treatable by targeting the complement system, specifically C5a or it´s signaling receptor C5aR, which acts downstream from other complement blockers and offers benefits in decreasing inflammation without compromising the body’s defense mechanisms. Diseases such hidradenitis suppurativa and chronic spontaneous urticaria are some of the indications we are taking on using our oral C5aR inhibitor INF904. These illnesses can be incredibly debilitating, painful and enormously impact the lives of patients. Now we are able once again to focus on diseases besides COVID-19 with the goal to improve patients' lives.

PE: What lessons did you learn getting a drug approved during the pandemic?
Riedemann: In the US, Gohibic is not an approved product. It was granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) in April 2023, when there was still an official public health emergency (PHE), for the treatment of COVID-19 in hospitalized adults when initiated within 48 hours receiving invasive mechanical ventilation or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Gohibic remains available today for use in these severe COVID patients.

The COVID-19 pandemic was an extreme time, especially when working in intensive care units. During this time scientists and physicians were doing everything they could to save lives. The original targeted disease for our complement inhibitor was not COVID-19, but when we saw how the immune system was dysregulated in this setting, especially in severely ill patients, we were hopeful that controlling the immune response might be beneficial.

One of the biggest lesson looking back, is that you can never be overly prepared for a full-blown pandemic. Before COVID-19, we simply had not grasped the scale of what could unfold in hospitals. To support future preparedness, it may be beneficial for ICUs to stock drugs that can help patients with severe infections and the resulting inflammation, especially in the event of another pandemic.