Eleva strengthens clinical leadership with appointment of Martin Bauer as CMO

Eleva, the Freiburg-based biopharmaceutical company specialising in difficult-to-produce biologics via its proprietary moss-based expression system, has announced a significant addition to its leadership team as it prepares to enter a crucial clinical development phase.

Clinical expertise enhancement

Dr Martin Bauer joins Eleva with more than two decades of clinical development experience across multiple therapeutic areas. His background includes senior positions at several pharmaceutical organisations including Atriva Therapeutics, Merck, Basilea, Otsuka, ICON, and Boehringer Ingelheim. Dr Bauer is board-certified in Anaesthesiology, Rescue Medicine, and Medical Informatics, complemented by extensive academic hospital experience.

The appointment comes at a strategic moment for Eleva as it prepares to initiate clinical trials for its Factor H (CPV-104) programme in C3 Glomerulopathy (C3G) during the first half of 2025. The company has also identified dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) as a potential second indication for this complement regulator. “With the clinical trial start for our second fully owned drug development programme on the horizon, we have decided to appoint an experienced Chief Medical Officer orchestrating all of these activities,” commented Björn Cochlovius Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Eleva.

Pipeline advancement

Eleva’s therapeutic pipeline focuses on complement disorders and enzyme replacement therapies. Their Factor H programme represents a novel complement regulator with a differentiated mechanism of action compared to current standard-of-care treatments.

“I’m thrilled to support Eleva as the company further strengthens its drug development activities with additional pipeline programmes and potentially new indications being explored. Our Factor H programme in particular has the potential to unlock a novel therapeutic mode-of-action that is clearly differentiated from the standard-of-care,” said Dr Bauer regarding his appointment.

The company’s aGal (RPV-001) programme for Fabry disease has already completed a Phase 1b clinical study with promising results, demonstrating the capabilities of Eleva’s moss-based expression system to manufacture challenging proteins with previously untapped therapeutic potential.