Christian Karsten Hansen

Christian Karsten Hansen, PhD (born 18 August 1966) is a Danish biotechnology entrepreneur and inventor, with work in new drugs, molecular biology and biochemistry.

Personal background

Originally from Copenhagen, Denmark, he spent his childhood in Antwerpen, Belgium and Caracas, Venezuela before completing high school at Sorø Academy in 1984. Following graduation as M.Sc. chemical engineering from the Technical University of Denmark in 1989,^[1] PhD work in molecular biology and biochemistry was conducted at the Pasteur Institute,^[2][3][4] France and the University of Salamanca,^[5] Spain. He also completed an MBA from the Edinburgh Business School, Scotland.^[6]

Professional background

Hansen held positions as senior scientist and director of intellectual property management at Novo Nordisk 1992–1999, and was a member of Enzyme Research Management.^[6] He co-founded one of the early Danish biotechnology companies, Profound Pharma,^[7][8] in 1999, with Jan Møller Mikkelsen,^[9] and remained co-CEO thereof until its acquisition by Maxygen in 2000.^[10] In 2001, he co-founded the investment firm Nordic Biotech Advisors,^[11][1] subsequently renamed NB Capital,^[12] with Florian Schönharting.^{[13][14][15][16][17]}

Since 2001, Hansen has co-founded or been a board member of numerous privately held and listed biotechnology companies including Osteologix,^[18][19] Nuevolution,^[20][21] Curalogic,^[6] Forward Pharma,^[22] RosePharma, Poalis,^[23] Aditech Pharma, LifeCycle Pharma,^[24] H Pharmaceuticals, and Isar Pharma.^[25]

Patents

Hansen has filed numerous patent applications in the fields of genetics of bacteria, cellulases and other enzymes, osteoporosis, and protein engineering and uses of biopharmaceuticals. He is named as inventor of issued European patents 1250154,^[26] 1425304,^[27] 1534305^[28] and 1732575,^[29] and US patents 5,843,720,^[30] 5,916,796,^[31] 6,066,473,^[32] 6,555,660,^[33] 6,646,110,^[34] 6,831,158,^[35] 7,230,081,^[36] 7,232,562,^[37] 7,504,237,^[38] 7,550,565,^[39] 7,550,566,^[40] 7,595,342,^[41] and 7,696,153.^[42]

Various compounds from these patents are in mid and late stages of clinical development, including strontium malonate for osteoporosis.^{[43][44][45][46]}

References