Claus has earned his degree in biochemistry from the University of Tübingen and performed his PhD work in the group of Friedrich Bonhoeffer at the Max-Planck-Institue for Developmental Biology.
He was crucially involved in LION bioscience´s IPO in 2000 raising a European record sum of 220 M Euros. Together with Thomas Hoffmann he co-founded Phenex Pharmaceuticals AG in 2002 which became a very successful biotech company by closing two major asset sales to Janssen (2012) and Gilead (2014) with a total value of more than 600 million US $.
In summer 2020, Claus, together with eight experienced drug discovery scientists and Yves Guillermet from the business side co-founded WMT AG to continue his track record as a serial entrepreneur. Claus serves as the CEO of WMT.