Adamed Pharma is a leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology company, with over 900 products and 256 patents covering 19 therapeutic areas. It was the first Polish company to undertake research into innovative therapies back in 2001. Adamed had significant experience with internal R&D and had built strong early-stage scientific capabilities. But as it moved toward development, it faced a challenge familiar to many biotechs: translating promising molecules into viable drug candidates.
To bridge this gap, Adamed turned to KreaMedica in 2011 for expertise in real-world drug development. Marcin Kolaczkowski, who led Adamed’s central nervous system (CNS) projects team, worked closely with Karl-Rudolf Erlemann (Rudi), President & CEO of KreaMedica. The collaboration, which lasted nearly a decade, proved to be remarkably fruitful. We asked Marcin to share some of his experiences working with KreaMedica.
Challenge 1: Bridging the knowledge gap between drug discovery and drug development
Adamed’s team had deep expertise in CNS pharmacology and medicinal chemistry. They were able to formulate strong hypotheses, propose methodology and execute drug discovery studies, which resulted in a few promising drug candidates. However, drug development—especially in the preclinical space—was uncharted territory.
“We had quite a bit of experience at the drug discovery stage and clinical assets in diabetes, but we had never developed molecules in the CNS area before,” said Marcin. “So we reached out to KreaMedica to help us develop our preclinical capabilities.”
KreaMedica’s founder, Rudi, brought the drug development expertise and real-world context, with a focus on developability—an essential element for translating discovery-stage hypotheses into viable clinical candidates.
This experience later helped Marcin develop a new Drug Discovery and Development Master’s program at the Jagiellonian University Medical College. The program focuses on the practical side of drug discovery and development, and specifically early preclinical development, such as profiling of molecules, selection of drug candidates and development.
“The challenges we tackled at Adamed with Rudi helped us offer the students something more than just textbook knowledge,” said Marcin. “And much of that experience and knowledge came from our work with KreaMedica.”
Challenge 2: Enabling “Fail Fast” decision-making
Adamed’s scientific process was rigorous, but like many discovery-stage teams, they faced a common trap: holding onto molecules with promising biological activity despite underlying issues, such as unfavourable pharmacokinetics or formulation. Through collaboration with KreaMedica, Adamed learned to embrace a “fail fast” mindset. Together, they evaluated and de-risked assets early, focusing on solubility, metabolic stability, oral absorption, selectivity and off-target profiling.
“We killed several molecules that looked promising at first—but just weren’t developable. And we were glad we did,” said Marcin. “Everything that is potentially problematic will bite you eventually. The sooner you find out, the better.”
By applying developability filters early in the pipeline, Adamed avoided costly late-stage failures and concentrated resources on their most promising asset—one that was ultimately commercialized with Acadia Pharmaceuticals, a US-based company focused on developing breakthroughs in neuroscience, in 2021.
“What KreaMedica provided was the resolve to say, ‘No, this is not going to work,’ even when we were emotionally invested.”
Challenge 3: Assembling and managing specialized service providers
Beyond development strategy, KreaMedica played a central role in organizing and managing the preclinical research service providers.
“In addition to his own knowledge and experience, Rudi always brought on board good people,” said Marcin. “He assembled the right team of specialists for the challenges we faced. They brought the expertise and proficiency, and because the service providers were located in Canada, we were able to take advantage of Canadian tax credits. This business model proved really beneficial for us.”
KreaMedica became an extension of the Adamed team, co-leading the projects with the contracted CROs, managing timelines and ensuring a seamless workflow from strategy to execution. This integrative model allowed Adamed to expand its research capabilities and efficiently move programs forward.
“They became part of our team. It was a real knowledge transfer, not just outsourced work, which allowed us to build experience ourselves.”
Project Outcome
One of the greatest benefits of working with KreaMedica, according to Marcin, was the ability to identify the weak points in projects and make better decisions about which compounds to take forward.
“KreaMedica helped us identify critical developability issues in several of our drug candidates and helped us make difficult choices that ultimately led to the right candidate selection,” he said. “We had to ‘kill’ several molecules, and we were ultimately really happy to have KreaMedica’s assistance in making those decisions.”
With KreaMedica’s guidance over a decade-long collaboration, Adamed advanced numerous small molecules and biologics, by making smarter go/no-go decisions and, ultimately, successfully brought a molecule to commercialization.
This experience and knowledge became the foundation of the Master’s program that Marcin started, training the next generation of scientists to understand both the science and strategy needed to succeed in biotech.
For us at KreaMedica, there is no greater reward than knowing that our work empowers innovation and creates long-lasting impact.
About Marcin Kolaczkowski
Marcin Kolaczkowski, PhD, is the Lead Scientist CNS at Adamed Pharma, as well as Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy at Jagiellonian University Medical College. With a background in Medicinal and Computational Chemistry, Neuropharmacology and Drug Discovery, especially for GPCRs targets, Marcin has over 20 years of experience at the intersection of academic research and pharmaceutical industry collaboration. He has published over 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals, is a co-inventor on 8 patents, and originator and co-founder of the Drug Discovery and Development Masters course at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Jagiellonian University Medical College.
About Adamed Pharma
Adamed Pharma is a Polish research- and patent-based pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with 100 percent Polish capital. Established in 1986, today it employs almost 2800 people and owns 2 production plants in Poland as well as one in Vietnam. The pillars of the company’s development are foreign expansion and investments in increasing the production of medication in Poland and in innovation. For more than 20 years, the company has been conducting its own innovative R&D work, for which it has allocated almost EUR 520 million since 2001. Adamed is currently implementing projects in three therapeutic areas: oncology, diabetology and neuropsychiatry. The company’s intellectual property is protected by 256 patents in most countries around the world, and its portfolio includes nearly 900 products (so-called SKUs) in Poland and abroad. Each year, the company produces over 3 billion tablets offered in dozens of markets around the world. It ensures general access to therapy for millions of patients in Poland and many other countries.
Adamed Pharma has 8 representative offices. A consistently implemented development strategy based on innovation and foreign expansion has made the company a well-known and international brand today. For years, it has been observing a gradual increase in sales of its products – both in terms of volume and value. Currently, foreign operations account for a third of its business, and development plans assume that it will be 55%.
About KreaMedica
KreaMedica was founded in 2009 with a vision to revolutionize drug development through functional outsourcing. The Montreal-based company has planned, managed and executed over 150 development programs from lead candidate selection through non-clinical safety assessments and early clinical trials by outsourcing to their world-class CRO/CMO network. With a commitment to research, development and quality, KreaMedica has become a trusted “one-stop-shop” drug development partner, offering reliable solutions and cost-saving strategies for their international biotech and pharma clients.