Florian Jakob
Head of Drug Discovery Engine Grünenthal
Dr. Florian Jakob is Vice President and Head of Drug Discovery Engine at Grünenthal. With more than 15 years of experience in pain drug discovery, preclinical and clinical development, he has led multidisciplinary teams from target concept to clinical evaluation. His teams contributed to the discovery of a potential first-in-class NOP receptor agonist and led the discovery of a highly selective Nav1.8 inhibitor, both of which have advanced into clinical testing. He subsequently led global cross-functional efforts supporting the clinical development of Nav1.8-targeted therapies. Florian is a co-inventor on more than 30 patents in pain and inflammation and holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the Technical University of Munich.
Seminars
- Following the first approval of a NaV1.8 inhibitor, where do the greatest opportunities for differentiation lie across NaV1.8, NaV1.7, NaV1.9 and other emerging sodium channel targets in acute, chronic and neuropathic pain?
- How should developers balance efficacy, safety, tolerability, tissue selectivity, CNS penetration and dosing convenience when designing next-generation sodium channel therapies?
- Is meaningful improvement now more likely to come through better molecule design, target engagement and patient selection, or through targeting different sodium channel subtypes and pain mechanisms?
- Which pain populations are most likely to benefit from specific sodium channel approaches, and how can developers better match mechanism to underlying disease biology and pain phenotype?
