The biotech company Brain Biotech, which has been hit on the stock market, wants to concentrate even more on gene editing research.

According to the company, which has 306 employees, CFO Lukas Linnig will be stepping down on October 1 to head a planned subsidiary for gene scissor research.

Falk Heunemann

Business editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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The Zwingenberg-based company, which produces enzymes for food production or detergents, among other things, has been investing in the promising gene scissors technology for a good two years.

It could be used for medicines, gene therapy and in agriculture.

The two discoverers of the CRISPR/Cas9 gene scissors received the Nobel Prize in 2020.

But this is patent protected.

Brain has developed a related gene scissor technology and applied for its own patent for it.

Dual leadership planned for Akribion

Brain has invested 1.4 million euros in the ambitious research project in the past nine months alone and intends to spin off this area into a separate subsidiary called Akribion ​​Genomics next year.

It is to be managed by the previous CFO Linnig and the head of research Michael Krohn.

The new Chief Financial Officer will be Michael Schneider, previously Head of Investor Relations.

The headquarters of the Genscheren subsidiary is planned in Zwingenberg.

With the spin-off, Brain would be able to attract investors to take a stake in Akribion ​​in order to be able to finance further research and development.

So far, Brain has not really been able to benefit from this future technology.

Although the company's sales increased from 28 to 36 million euros in the first nine months of the financial year, the bottom line is that the loss has doubled to six million euros.

The company itself reports a smaller deficit, which excludes investments in the gene editing project.

Share price fell sharply

In the stock market, the company's share price has lost nearly half its value since the start of the year, despite several analysts upgrading the company's value and recommending a buy.

The largest shareholder with 36 percent is the Stuttgart entrepreneur Martin Putsch (Recaro Group), and several investment companies and Daniel Hopp, son of SAP founder Dietmar Hopp, also hold larger shares.

However, Brain had recently suffered a few setbacks: Among other things, the American authorities had stopped clinical tests for a drug to treat the hereditary disease HAE.

The drug is being developed by Pharvaris, in which Brain is indirectly involved.

Another subsidiary was unable to continue clinical studies as a result of the pandemic.

On the other hand, a new salt taste enhancer is being used in products by a customer for the first time.

On Monday, Brain also sold the subsidiary LA Schmitt with 25 employees in Ludwigsstadt to a Korean company.

LA Schmitt has belonged to Brain since 2009, but now cosmetics fit more into the strategy, it said.

In addition, the income would be needed for further growth.

The specific proceeds were not disclosed.