History of The Company
Genmab was founded as a European spin-off of American Biotech company Medarex in February 1999. Danish investment firm BankInvest provided the seed investment for the company to start up in Copenhagen. Lisa Drakeman, a vice president at Medarex and wife of Donald Drakeman, Medarex's CEO and President at the time, was appointed CEO of Genmab upon incorporation. Like Medarex, Genmab began work producing monoclonal antibodies for life threatening or debilitating diseases. Rising quickly in the Biotech world, Genmab attracted many investors, especially venture capital firms. The company went public in October 2000, earning 1.56 billion Danish kroner, and had a second public offering in January 2006 yielding 800 million kroner. That same year, Genmab also had a licensing agreement with GlaxoSmithKline worth $1.6 billion for the antibody ofatumumab. Besides GSK, Genmab also has licensing deals with Amgen, Roche and Lundbeck involving therapeutic monoclonal antibodies with multiple indications. In 2005 the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and the Long Island Life Sciences Initiative honored Genmab with a James D. Watson Helix Award. The Company's first product, Arzerra (ofatumumab) reached the US market in 2009 for refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
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