Director, Discovery Research Coordination, Boehringer Ingelheim Germany
Markus Koester is a Director of Discovery Research Coordination Germany (DRCG) at Boehringer Ingelheim with more than 20 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry in various functions. He leads the global digital communication and portal activity of the company’s open innovation platform opnMe.com. opnMe.com was launched at end of 2017 with the goal to foster independent research in life science across the globe. Through accessing the portal, scientists can access well-characterized pre-clinical tool compounds free of charge. All IP generated through the molecules belong to the ordering scientists. In addition, scientists have the possibility to submit research collaboration proposals for select molecules which are offered only for a brief period of time but represent usually either unpublished or unprecedented tool compounds. Upon selection by an internal scientific jury, researchers have the possibility to obtain monetary funding for their projects as part of bi-lateral collaboration projects with scientists from Boehringer Ingelheim. In 2020, a third opnMe program was launched, “opn2EXPERTS”, where the company enlists scientific advice on key biologic issues to fuel further drug discovery and deliver novel solutions that benefit unmet patient needs.
opnMe.com now covers 55 molecules to order and received more than 1,000 orders from 60 countries across the word. In addition, with its two collaboration programs, Boehringer Ingelheim has received more than 1,000 research collaboration proposals by now.