- VERAXA has appointed Raju Willener as Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately.
- Willener brings more than 30 years of international experience spanning investment banking, corporate finance, asset management and capital markets.
- His appointment comes as VERAXA advances its proprietary BiTAC platform and a pipeline centered on antibody-drug conjugates and T-cell engagers.
- VERAXA has reported encouraging early data for its BiTAC technologies, including an in-vitro proof of concept for its BiTAC-ADC platform.
VERAXA Biotech (NASDAQ: VRXA), an emerging leader in designing novel cancer therapies, has appointed Raju Willener as chief financial officer, adding a finance executive with more than three decades of international capital-markets experience as the biotechnology company works to advance its oncology pipeline. The appointment is effective immediately. Willener will report to Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Christoph Antz, Ph.D. (https://nnw.fm/N82oF).
Willener’s career spans investment banking, corporate finance, asset management and strategic leadership across the United States, Europe and Asia. Before joining VERAXA, he served as director of corporate development at Exentis Group AG and became its CFO in 2025, where he was involved in financial strategy and M&A activities.
Earlier positions included senior responsibilities in corporate finance, capital markets and investment management, including oversight of portfolios exceeding CHF 30 billion in assets under management. He holds an MBA and a master’s degree in accounting and finance and is qualified in financial risk management.
“VERAXA has built a highly differentiated technology platform and a compelling oncology pipeline at an important stage of its development,” said Willener. “I am excited to join the company and work alongside [CEO] Christoph [Antz] and the leadership team to further strengthen VERAXA’s financial and capital markets strategy, support disciplined capital allocation and pursue strategic opportunities that can accelerate development of a differentiated pipeline and create sustainable long-term value for shareholders.”
The appointment comes at a point when VERAXA is attempting to turn its technology platform into a broader therapeutic pipeline. At the center of that strategy is BiTAC, short for Bi-targeted Tumor-Associated Cytotoxicity. The platform is designed around an “AND-gated” approach in which two complementary components must engage with the same cancer cell before the therapeutic mechanism becomes fully active.
For BiTAC-TCE candidates, VERAXA uses two antibody constructs directed at separate tumor-associated targets. Only when both components bind to the same cancer cell is the T-cell-binding function established. The intended result is greater selectivity between tumor tissue and healthy tissue.
The company is applying the concept to both T-cell engagers and antibody-drug conjugates, or ADCs. The approach matters because conventional ADCs and T-cell engagers can face challenges associated with activity outside the intended tumor environment. VERAXA’s development thesis is that conditional activation could potentially widen the therapeutic window, although that proposition ultimately must be established through increasingly rigorous preclinical and clinical testing.
The company has already reported early evidence supporting the concept. At the AACR 2026 Annual Meeting, VERAXA presented data from its most advanced BiTAC-TCE program. The company said the candidate attacked cells expressing both target molecules while sparing cells expressing only one target, with in-vivo results showing a safety profile that compared favorably with a conventional TCE while maintaining comparable efficacy.
In June, VERAXA added another data point when it reported an in-vitro proof of concept for its BiTAC-ADC platform. The company said its two-component approach demonstrated selective activity against breast-cancer cells while distinguishing them from healthy cells in laboratory testing, including dose-dependent killing of three-dimensional tumor spheroids.
VERAXA’s pipeline now extends beyond a single lead program. Its published portfolio includes BiTAC-TCE candidates targeting solid tumors and multiple-myeloma applications, bispecific ADC programs, BiTAC-ADC candidates and additional antibody-based therapeutics. Its VXA-901 monoclonal antibody program targets FLT3 in acute myeloid leukemia and has already generated Phase I clinical data.
The company has also been expanding intellectual-property protection. In July, VERAXA reported more than 50 granted owned or exclusively licensed patents across 14 countries and 26 patent families, with additional applications covering BiTAC-TCE and BiTAC-ADC technologies.
For more information, visit the company’s website at www.Veraxa.com.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to VRXA are available in the company’s newsroom at https://nnw.fm/VRXA
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