Karsten Cremer, PhD, brings in the ideal expertise for leading this patent course. He is a European patent attorney and a pharmaceutical scientist with 20 years of professional experience in the field of drug delivery. Through his intimate knowledge from both sides of the fence, he has become a successful trainer for pharmaceutical professionals who tackle patent challenges relating to drug products, dosage form designs, formulations, kits, and manufacturing methods.
Karsten is the founder and managing director of Pharma Concepts GmbH, a pharmaceutical IP consultancy located in Basel (Switzerland). In previous pointments, he was CEO of Capsulution Nano Science AG, Director of Oral Drug Delivery at LTS Lohmann Therapy Systems, and Lecturer of Pharmaceutics at the University of Marburg. As a pharmaceutical IP expert, Karsten works with large pharmaceutical companies as well as small and medium-size drug delivery companies.
His specialities include IP issues relating to pharmaceutical formulations and drug delivery technologies. In addition to drafting, filing and prosecuting patent applications, he is experienced in opposing and defending patents, developing and implementing tailor-made patent strategies, managing patent portfolios, establishing patent landscapes, performing freedom-to-operate  analyses, and conducting technical and IP due diligences.
Karsten is an experienced speaker and tutor with a proven track record of success within the APV and other professional organisations. He is also founder and member of the APV Drug Delivery Focus Group.

Kurt Schellhaas, PhD, joined Pharma Concepts in 2016 as a Senior Associate on the basis of more than 15 years of professional experience in academia and industry. He completed his studies in Chemistry at J. W. Goethe University, Frankfurt and holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Technical University Berlin. After his postdoctoral studies at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography
at the University of California, La Jolla he joined BASF SE as a medicinal chemist. In 2002, Kurt decided to focus his professional career on the field of Intellectual Property and joined the BASF Global IP department where he worked as a European Patent Attorney and Senior Patent Counsel in the field of vitamins and precursors thereof, APIs and pharmaceutical intermediates as well as aroma chemicals covering a broad range of technologies from lab to world scale applications.
In 2009, Kurt joined Roche Diagnostics broadening his area of IP practice to consumer medical technology and devices in the area of Diabetes Care as a Senior Counsel and ultimately as Head of Patents Diabetes Care.
As Karsten, Kurt brings in relevant hands-on experience in the management of the multiple interfaces between internal and external R&D units, IP departments as well as other relevant stakeholders in the pharmaceutical industry as well as related technical areas.