Medtronic Selects Lothar Krinke to Direct Biotechnology Initiatives

Life Science Partner placement offers valuable experience in technology and commercialization assessment

Life Science Partner announces the placement of Lothar Krinke, PhD, as senior director of biosciences technology development for Minneapolis-based Medtronic, Inc. In this new role, Krinke will lead new technology assessment efforts and manage relationships with key external partner institutions. Krinke will also collaborate with Medtronic’s regulatory, clinical and marketing teams to analyze business opportunities in biotechnology and gauge the feasibility of related research programs.

Krinke comes to Medtronic with 13 years of experience in evaluating new medical technologies and lines of business. As a consultant and, more recently, with early stage biotechnology firms, he has demonstrated his ability to assess complex technologies for their commercial potential.

Medtronic, a leading medical technology company, has more than $7 billion in annual revenues.

“With Lothar, Medtronic is gaining a rare combination of applied experience, broad collaboration with companies in the life sciences, and a consultant’s systematic approach to recommending action,” says Life Science Partner Vice President Cynthia B. Roberts. “He will prove a valuable addition to Medtronic’s biotechnology team.”

Prior to Medtronic, Krinke helped found Endogeny Bio Corp. and served as its vice president of business development. He held responsibility for licensing, contracting, intellectual property development and business planning.

Krinke also founded a consulting firm, Biostrategic Solutions, which offers strategic analysis and planning services to biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical products companies.

At Celera Genomics previously, Krinke was vice president and chief business officer of Celera Online, in which capacity he led the commercial operations of the company’s information business, including marketing, proposals and contracts, client programs, bioinformatics solutions and product strategy. In an earlier position at Celera Genomics, as vice president of business development and strategic planning, Krinke was responsible for strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and licensing. He identified and successfully acquired Axys Pharmaceuticals at that time.

Over ten years as a consultant with McKinsey & Company and, later, A.T. Kearney, Krinke served biopharmaceutical, genomics, medical products and other life sciences companies. His work involved technical assessment and financial valuation, licensing strategy, e-business strategy, corporate transactions and post-merger integration planning, and R&D and commercialization strategy.

Krinke was an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Research Fellow and a Procter & Gamble Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology. He earned his doctorate in molecular biology at the University at Albany, State University of New York. He holds an undergraduate degree in biology from Technische Universität Braunschweig in Germany.