Servatus, which recently raised $7.5 million from investors, said the German pharmaceutical giant, Boehringer Ingelheim, had taken a seat on its board. It also has bought an undefined stake in the company. 

Boehringer’s senior vice president and molecular biologist Dr Uwe Buecheler has become a director of Servatus.

Chief executive Wayne Finlayson said the appointment of Buecheler would would bring significant commercial and scientific experience at a time when Servatus was “bolstering its Australian research and development capabilities.

“We hope to leverage Uwe’s vast knowledge and experience gained throughout his many years at Boehringer Ingelheim, one of the world’s top pharmaceutical companies, while expanding Servatus’s core business units over the next three years,’’ Finlayson said.

Buecheler had overseen more than 30 biologics approvals and launches.

He said he was looking forward to maximising the global expansion capabilities of Servatus.

Among Servatus’s recent work is a study investigating the role of gut health on insomnia, but the company has two platforms: engineered protein for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and microbial biotherapeutics for the treatment of inflammatory conditions and bacterial infections.