ten23 health is the human-centric and sustainable strategic partner of choice for the pharmaceutical industry and biotech start-ups for the development, manufacture, and testing of tomorrow’s medicines. Pulse 2.0 interviewed ten23 health CEO Professor Dr. Hanns-Christian Mahler to learn more about the company.
Dr. Hanns-Christian Mahler’s Background
What is Dr. Mahler’s background? Dr. Mahler said:
“I studied pharmacy in Mainz, Germany, did a PhD in toxicology, and then joined the pharma industry. During my industry tenure, I completed my habilitation thesis in ‘pharmaceutical sciences’ in parallel and remained affiliated to the University. I also further educated myself in business, marketing, organizational development, and sustainability.
“In pharma, I worked at Merck (2000-2005) and Roche (2005-2015), changed to the contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) industry, building the Drug Product Services Organization at Lonza (2015-2021), and started ten23 health in 2021.
“I am married, and father of two great kids.”
Formation Of ten23 Health
How did the idea for the company come together? Dr. Mahler shared:
“Well, I always thought that the pharma and CDMO sector needed a little change. Hence, very early on, “patients, people, planet” were the key cornerstones of the idea to initiate a new CDMO, that goes well beyond the existing model and may (hopefully)help to disrupt a little.
“ten23 health came into existence after being introduced to 3i, a private equity investment company. It became clear we shared similar values and beliefs on longevity, sustainability, and people focus.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Dr. Mahler reflected:
“There are many. One memory keeps specifically resonating well with me: I was on a longer summer vacation than usual. No emails, no calls and, when I returned, our organizational structure had evolved. It was wonderful to see that the company and all my colleagues did so well during my absence.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Dr. Mahler explained:
“ten23 health is a sterile product CDMO; we develop, manufacture, and test our customers’ (pharma and biotech) products. Hence, we are a service provider.
“Our uniqueness lies in our expertise and knowledge, for example, we excel when it comes to intravitreal or subcutaneous, high concentration formulations and complex dosage forms like syringe or cartridge filling with highest precision and without air bubbles.”
Evolution of ten23 health’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Dr. Mahler noted:
“We have been continuously adding new services. For example, sterile filling was added end of October 2021 (by acquisition) quickly after our company launch in Sept 2021. Most recently, we have been able to offer QC testing services. More new services will be provided by our VIVA2 expansion which will soon come online.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Dr. Mahler cited:
“ten23 has announced the advancement of our VIVA2 facility and additional filling lines. This will add extra capacity and capabilities for our sterile filling services. Additionally, we have announced our partnership with SHL Medical and Ypsomed.
“The advancement of drug/device combination products, such as for SC use, is key to our core experience and business. During the last few years, we also supported our clients in launching large-volume SC drug/device combination products (on-body injectors), such as the West SmartDose 10 mL device.”
Customer Success Stories
After asking Dr. Mahler about customer success stories, he highlighted:
“We have been getting fantastic feedback from our clients, both from small companies as well as large pharma. Our team is agile, fast, has high expertise and has helped to overcome any various challenges at hand. Our customer retention is also currently at 100%.”
Additional Thoughts
Any topics to discuss? Dr. Mahler concluded:
“We are very proud of the release of our 2023 fairstainability report. ten23 has sustainability in its DNA and we take huge pride in the successes and advances that we have made in our sustainability journey.”
