• Thermosome GmbH
  • Am Klopferspitz 19
  • 82152 Planegg/Martinsried
  • Germany
  • Phone: +49 (0)89/716 77 60 31
  • Fax: +49 (0)89/716 77 60 49
  • moc.emosomreht@ofni

Thermosome

Dr. Pascal Schweizer, Co-Founder & CEO / CFO

About Thermosome GmbH

Thermosome is a clinical-stage drug development company focused on targeted tumor therapy combined with immune stimulation for improved cancer therapy. At its core is a novel, proprietary tumor targeting approach that allows for significantly increased local drug concentrations and improved tumor penetration to achieve improved clinical treatment efficacy.

The lead candidate THE001 is a thermosensitive formulation of doxorubicin. It enables intravascular drug release initiated by a mild heat trigger using clinical hyperthermia devices. This results in an up to 15-fold higher local tumor drug concentrations and aims to improve clinical treatment efficacy by creating a local boost. These high local concentrations, which also reach less well perfused areas, aim to overcome drug resistance. The first clinical indication of THE001 is soft tissue sarcoma.

What is your motivation?

I founded my first own company as a 17-year-old teenager in high school. While I started my career working about a decade in corporate strategy and management (Bain & Co., ZEISS), an entrepreneurial role was something I always envisioned. For me, life sciences is a particularly rewarding industry as we develop meaningful products that may one day make this world a better place, for instance, by offering better treatment options for severe diseases. At Thermosome, we strive to improve the treatment of locally advanced tumors. These are tumors which are preoperatively treated to enable surgery. With our technology, we achieve up to 15-fold higher local drug concentrations, potentially making preoperative treatments much more effective. If successful, we may one day offer a curative treatment to patients with certain locally advanced tumors. This is the vision we are all working for.

“The IZB is a great place to be for life science start-ups. Not only can you grow your company in a flexible manner, you become part of an inspirational network of driven bioentrepreneurs.”

Dr. Pascal Schweizer, Co-Founder & CEO / CFO

Founded in 2010, Thermosome is a biotech company developing new drug delivery systems for therapeutic and diagnostic agents based on temperature-sensitive liposomes.

The company is using a novel liposome technology based on synthetic phospholipids that provides liposomes with prolonged circulation half-life and ultra-fast release properties. Drug release shall be triggered by the application of energy from an exogenous or endogenous device (e.g. regional hyperthermia, high intensity focused ultrasound) to the patient receiving the treatment. Thermosome will make use of its platform technology in order to not only enhance the efficacy of the drug but also to reduce systemic side effects.