Ilka Wicke is a company woman. She’s been at Germany-based drugs group Boehringer Ingelheim for more than 20 years, having progressed through the ranks from the research labs, through corporate development, to her current roles of investment manager at its corporate venture capital unit (CVC), Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF), and director at Boehringer Ingelheim itself.
From 1998 to 2010, she was involved with contract negotiations for licenses and collaborations for Boehringer, and since 2010, she has spent her time evaluating investments into bio-tech startups from the director’s chair. She is also on the board of Promethera Bioscience (Belgium), Pcovery (Denmark), and MetaboMed (Israel).
Boehringer Ingelheim’s CVC unit has had a good year in 2017 and more than doubled its funds to $300m. On deals, last year started swiftly, leading HepaRegeniX’s series A round in January with €9m ($9.4m), with the money being directed towards the liver therapy developer’s drug discovery programs.
BIVF followed that up in March by co-leading the $12m series A round for Sentien Biotechnologies, a US-based cell therapy developer.
In May, Wicke and Boehringer Ingelheim were involved again, co-leading a €15m series A round for German heart failure therapy developer Cardior Pharmaceuticals, in partnership with Bristol-Meyers Squib and VC firm Life Sciences Partners.
The same month, France-based immuno-oncology therapy developer ImCheck Therapeutics closed a €20m series A round, once again co-led by BIVF.
The rapid pace of deals and the similar nature of them – often co-led, for early-stage investment – indicated Wicke has her finger on the pulse, picking out those companies that are innovating and on the rise.
In fact, only once this year has Boehringer Ingelheim backed a series B round, and that was for Swiss cancer-focused biotechnology firm Amal Therapeutics in September, which it had previously invested in in 2016. The B round was worth $9.6m, up on the series A round of $3.1m. September also saw Boehringer Ingelheim’s 2014 investment in RNA therapeutics developer Rigontec exit through US-based Merck’s acquisition of the Germany-based company for €115m up front and up to €349m in future payments.
Closing out the series A round, and the year, Boehringer invested €4m in Germany-based biotechnology developer Topas Therapeutics, allowing it to close its series A round at approximately $20.8m. The round, which has been open since March 2016, closed in November. Topas’ chief executive officer Timm Jessen said at the time: “BIVF has a great track record of successfully investing in biotech companies as a strategic, long-term investor. Their investment in Topas is a strong validation of our approach and we greatly value their support.”