Strüngmann Award Honors Araris Biotech Founding Team as 2025 Winner
The founding team is developing a breakthrough technology to establish a new generation of targeted cancer therapies
The Strüngmann Award selection committee announced that Dragan Grabulovski, Ph.D., Philipp Spycher, Ph.D., and Isabella Attinger-Toller, Ph.D., the founders of Araris Biotech, have been honored as this year’s winners. The award aims to support outstanding entrepreneurial and scientific achievements, as well as ground-breaking ideas in the life sciences industry. Araris Biotech’s founding team distinguished itself not only by developing of a novel technology in the antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) field, but also by successfully validating this innovation through partnerships and a preclinical exit. This new drug class has the potential to significantly advance the development of targeted cancer therapies, thereby delivering added value for people living with cancer worldwide.
“On behalf of the award committee and this year’s expert jury panel, we would like to congratulate Isabella Attinger-Toller, Dragan Grabulovski and Philipp Spycher. Together with the expert jury, we selected the founders of Araris Biotech as winners based on their combined leadership, entrepreneurial expertise and scientific excellence. Following the successful acquisition of Araris by Taiho Pharmaceuticals, we believe this award further recognizes the founding team’s continued growth and positive trajectory ahead. This trio has impressively demonstrated how a new idea, a clear focus on translation and entrepreneurial boldness can come together to launch a new generation of targeted cancer therapies,” said Andreas Strüngmann, M.D., and Thomas Strüngmann, Ph.D., in a joint statement. “It was a special privilege for us to engage with such a diverse, forward-looking group of start-ups from the DACH region. Learning more about the finalists and their impressive achievements made the final decision anything but easy.”
The group of finalists selected in May comprised three companies: Araris Biotech, NovaGo Therapeutics and TOLREMO therapeutics, whose founders exemplify the entrepreneurial potential and scientific diversity that characterize the life sciences sector in the DACH region. They include an impressive variety of disciplines — spanning targeted cancer therapies, regenerative neuroscience and cancer drug resistance. Following the presentation of their entrepreneurial and scientific achievements to an expert jury, Dragan Grabulovski, Ph.D., Philipp Spycher, Ph.D., and Isabella Attinger-Toller, Ph.D., were announced today as the winning team and will receive a joint cash prize of EUR 100,000.
"We feel very honored to have our vision and achievements recognized by the Strüngmann Award. As the founding team, we have always believed in the potential of our new technology and the value it may hold for patients. This award, in addition to the acquisition by Taiho Pharmaceuticals, is a validation of our commitment, shared journey and the hard work that has enabled our success story," said Dragan Grabulovski, Ph.D., CEO of Araris Biotech, on behalf of the founding team.
The Araris Biotech founders, the experienced biotech entrepreneur Dragan Grabulovski, Ph.D., (CEO), the visionary scientist Philipp Spycher, Ph.D., (CSO) and the outstanding translational scientist Isabella Attinger-Toller, Ph.D., (CTO), can look back on one of the most successful Swiss biotech startups to be established in recent years. Spun out of the Paul Scherrer Institute (part of ETH domain) in 2019, the team developed a novel ADC linker-payload technology (AraLinQ™) that enables one-step payload attachment to off-the-shelf antibodies, without the need for prior antibody engineering. This innovative approach not only opens new possibilities in oncology, but also has potential for applications in other therapeutic areas.
In only a few years, the Araris team raised over CHF 40 million, formed a strategic partnership with Chugai (Roche) and Johnson & Johnson, and achieved a landmark acquisition by Taiho Pharmaceutical in March 2025 for up to USD $1.14 billion. Through these achievements, the three winners exemplify the potential within the DACH region to successfully translate scientific excellence into global innovation.
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