Biotechnology Business Plan Competition
May, 2000

These are some of the better entries to the May, 2000, Biotechnology Business Plan Competition sponsored by BioSpace.com.

Angstrom Medica | BioExchange.com | Biolife | Biotechnology License Securitization | Cosmetigen | *Dermamax* | EyeGen | ImmVax | MegaMetrics International | Minerva Pharmaceuticals | *NewCo* | Quicksilver Discovery

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Angstrom Medica

Product/Service: Nano/biotechnology
Location: Cambridge, MA
Contact: Edward Ahn
eon@mit.edu
tel/fax 617-621-9851

 

Angstrom Medica is an early-stage life sciences company developing applications using a proprietary nano/biotechnology platform. We are among the first ventures to exploit nanotechnology within the life sciences and health care markets. Consequently, we have a first mover advantage and the opportunity to dominate nano/biotechnology as it matures. Our nano/biotechnology provides the precision, specificity, and control necessary to develop (1) pharmaceuticals, (2) noninvasive alternatives to surgeries, (3) drug delivery, (4) in vitro and in vivo diagnostic testing, and (5) preventative medicine. Though we possess the key enabling technologies, Angstrom Medica is also creating a community of clinicians and manufacturing, marketing, and distribution partners to address the needs of patients and their HMOs in order to become a successful venture.

 

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BioExchange.com

Product/Service: Life sciences internet portal
Location: San Francisco, CA
Contact: Eric Stone
eric@bioportals.com

www.bioexchange.com

 

BioExchange.com will the leading Internet-Portal that provides original, timely and comprehensive information and professional-grade e-commerce services to our community and business environment in the Life Sciences. BioExchange.com is a single solution for Internet-based technology and resources for the Life Sciences-focused web user, providing information, , community tools, and e-commerce all within our web site. Our careers sections, procurement and liquidation e-commerce centers, internet mall, and consignment systems provide the Life Sciences with a cost-effective solution for securing talent, asset recovery, collaboration, and products sales. We are strongly positioned to catering to the Life Sciences community as a whole, providing a one-stop aggregate information service for the community while also providing e-commerce solutions, tools, and unique offerings through the Internet.

 

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Biolife
Product/Service: Wrinkle-preventing cosmeceutical
Location: London, ON, Canada
Contact: Dave Martin, PhD
DMartin.MBA2000@ivey.ca
(519) 433-7216
 

US$12 billion industry
BioLife's scientists were instrumental in discovering the tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases (TIMP) gene. The protein produced by this gene has the unique ability to block the activity of enzymes responsible for skin wrinkling. BioLife will develop and commercialize TIMP as a wrinkle-preventing cosmeceutical for the $12 billion global skin care industry.

TIMP blocks skin wrinkling.
BioLife will establish a sustainable advantage with a Method of Use Patent that describes the use of metalloproteinase inhibitors for the purpose of preventing skin wrinkling. Furthermore, BioLife will achieve product differentiation by seeking regulatory drug approval in clinical trials. Although clinical approval will delay the product's market entry, success in FDA trials will allow BioLife to position TIMP as the only product clinically proven to block the enzymes that cause skin wrinkling.

BioLife Patent
Management will seek strategic partnerships with global cosmetics companies who will fund a portion of product development in return for future selling rights. With strong partners, TIMP product should be adopted by 5% of North American and European women between the ages of 35 and 44 in the first year of sales. This results in sales of $2.4 billion in 2008 and $66 million in profits. Profits are projected to grow to $135.6 million by 2012.

 

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Biotechnology License Securitization

Product/Service: Short-term off-balance-sheet financing via mortgaging of technology/licenses
Location: Newton, MA
Contact: Patrick C. Trombly
PT459@aol.com
(617) 443-2830

 

A New Way to Structure Investment in Biotechnology

No business plan can be realized without proper funding.

Proper funding requires a stable investment market for biotechnology: it requires a mechanism - an incentive - to consistently point investors to the most promising and most desired technology rather than merely to or from the sector as a whole.

 

The current investment environment lacks that stabilizing mechanism. Most of the typical company's funding is generated through a single Initial Public Offering of that company's shares. Due to the high volatility of the equity market - particularly the equity market in the biotechnology sector - such offerings may generate less capital than expected or must be delayed. The value of a company's technology may factor less in the company's ability to finance the development of that technology than does the market's treatment of biotechnology stocks in general. The impact of such market volatility could be that the further development of potentially life-saving technology or at least the speed of such development is determined by the market's whim on a given week or day with respect to the sector as a whole.

 

We have developed an investment structure precisely to address these issues. Our structure does not replace but rather complements an Initial Public Offering - it will enable a biotechnology company to raise capital in the event an offering is delayed or fails to raise all of the funding desired. Our structure adapts and applies a mechanism used currently in the banking industry - mortgage securitization - to biotechnology licenses. By securitizing or "monetizing" pre-existing technology licenses, a company can achieve short-term financing with no negative financial statement or tax consequences and without having to issue additional equity - in other words, with little or no negative impact on the ability to complete an Initial Public Offering when market conditions improve. Our structure will also enable investors to by-pass the volatility of the equity market and invest directly in a company's technology - and ultimately to share in the profitability of that technology. This direct investment mechanism will attract capital to the most promising technology rather than to or from the biotechnology sector as a whole.

 

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Cosmetigen

Product/Service: Genomics-based R&D of cosmetics.
Location: New Haven, CT
Contact: Gian-Carlo Ochoa, CEO
gian@pantheon.yale.edu
(203) 737-4457

 

Company

Cosmetigen was founded in February 2000 to create a new line of cosmetic products using specially developed proprietary genomic-based drug discovery technology. Our major cosmetic drug targets include acne, hair replacement, hair removal, skin pigmentation, breast enhancement, and reduction.

Technology

Cosmetigen will apply new cutting edge genomics technologies to discover novel targets and use these targets for development of new cosmetic products. Our technique will test numerous biochemical mechanisms simultaneously to determine which mechanism is the best to target the medical condition. It will also speed up screening of chemical compounds by narrowing down the number of potential lead compounds very early in the drug development process. This will result in a significant reduction of drug development cost. Moreover, our approach will allow us to develop a pharmacological treatment for cosmetic problems, which have now to be treated surgically.

Financial

Cosmetigen is seeking $5 million in first-round financing. The funding will enable the company to establish operations, identify target genes underlying cosmetic disorder, validate, and optimize the proprietary technology of screening chemical libraries. The company anticipates that the initial round will be sufficient to begin screening for drug candidates and to obtain and maintain patents on discovered genes and technology.

 

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Dermamax Technologies

1st Prize Winner-
Biotechnology Business Plan Competition, May, 2000
Product/Service: Transdermally applied medications
Location: Athens, Georgia
Contact: John Abernathy
john.abernathy@mindspring.com
(706) 227-6033

 

Dermamax Technologiesª will develop an entire family of simpler, safer, transdermally applied medications utilizing an innovative, highly effective, patent pending packaging technology called the Ternary Melt System. In the melt system, the drug that exists as a solid at room temperature is converted to one that will exist in an oily state at room temperature. By changing the "state" of the drug in this manner, the ability of the drug to penetrate completely through intact skin is increased significantly when the drug is formulated into creams, emulsions, and gels and applied topically.

Dermamax drugs will be developed by taking highly effective drugs with expired patents and formulating them into new, effective, topically applied products, which reduce the side effects associated with other applications. Dermamax has focused first on the arthritis market by developing a transdermal ibuprofen cream called Dermaprofenª (market potential over $200MM).

 

Dermamax has already achieved significant success by winning the only business plan competition it has entered, the 2000 InfoUSA International Business Plan Competition in Lincoln, Nebraska, and is currently preparing for the Moot Corp® International Competition in Austin, Texas in early May.

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EyeGen

Product/Service: Novel biomarker technology for labeling biomolecules
Location: Cambridge, MA
Contact: Zoran Z Zdraveski
zzz@mit.edu
(617) 253-6207

 

EyeGen has developed a novel biomarker technology that makes DNA and other
biomolecules visible to the naked eye. This allows for easy manipulation and handling of biomolecules during laboratory procedures. Because our products do not require
expensive equipment for detection yet offer high sensitivity, EyeGen Biomarkers TM are a safer, cost-reducing and time-saving alternative to the currently used radioactive and fluorescent probes for labeling biomolecules. For example, in a routine band-shift
experiment performed daily in every biochemistry laboratory, our biomarkers are 400% cheaper than fluorescent tags and 1400% cheaper than radioactivity and without the attendant biohazardous waste. Concurrent time savings over the two other methods are 330% and 530%. Since labeling and detecting biomolecules is at the cornerstone of every experiment in the biotech, genomic and biomedical industries, EyeGen's biomarkers have broad applications as invaluable tools in an expanding $9.9 billion R&D annual market. Besides our patent pending technology, our main advantages are that we already have four market-ready products that don't require any regulatory approvals and can immediately generate revenue.

 

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ImmVax

Product/Service: Synthetic peptide vaccines for the prevention and treatment of cancer
Location: Los Gatos, CA
Contact: Jay M. Kimmal
jkimmal@hmtt.com
510-390-2901

 

ImmVax is a privately held biotechnology firm engaged in the discovery and development of pharmaceuticals to treat serious human disease. ImmVax hopes to utilize a patented gene product for the treatment and vaccination against Adenocarcinoma. ImmVax plans on developing these gene products into novel therapeutics.

ImmVax is committed to the development and testing of peptide based vaccines to treat and prevent common human cancers. ImmVax was founded to complete and commercialize a synthetic peptide vaccine as well as the associated antibody based diagnostics. Complimentary to this goal is the clinical testing of a natural human protein shown to have adjuvant activity beneficial for use with all vaccines.

 

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MegaMetrics International, Inc.

Product/Service: Database mining service.
Location: Elkins Park, PA
Contact: Bert te Velde, VP of Business Development
tevelde.smith@worldnet.att.net
(610) 909-6045

www.megametrics.com

 

MegaMetrics International, Inc. (MMI) provides businesses with an advanced computational-based product and service, Diogenes, ª for analyzing complex databases to discover hidden patterns and their distributions within data. The discovery of these patterns and distributions in databases of every type has a decisive effect on business fundamentals - everything from genomics, bioinformatics, and pharmaceutical research to product performance, customer behavior, competitive positioning, and financial outcomes.
Diogenes-based specialty software
MMI will move to identify partners to work with MMI in order to gain insight into their data that would not otherwise be possible. To accomplish this, MMI will develop sophisticated Diogenes-based software specifically designed to data mine the partner's data in special circumstances, partners will use Diogenes to data mine for themselves. MMI will then provide ongoing consulting services, training, and training materials.

MMI's first target is genomic companies seeking to develop more effective drugs, in shorter time-to-market cycles, through the use of bioinformatics. The ideal partners have complex data generated from gene chip arrays as well as tissue samples from patients with cancer, heart, central nervous system disorders, and other diseased states. The samples would be indicative of the various progressive stages of each disease. Working with the staff of its partners, MMI will develop Diogenes-based specialty software to identify the genes associated with each progressive disease stage. Such partner companies would then develop drugs and/or work with pharmaceutical companies that have drug candidate compounds that would be given during the various progressive stages of the disease. Diogenes would then be used to determine patterns of genes actively and metabolic pathways that are turned on or off because of the effect of any given drug candidate. The optimization and efficiency of drug development would therefore be considerably enhanced and drug development would be accelerated.

MMI will also acquire its own databases and take advantage of the databases being made available by the U.S. and British governments. MMI will then data mine and analyze the data and market its results to biotech and pharmaceutical companies.

MMI will generate revenues from its collaboration with its partners, and receive a stream of royalties on the sale of pharmaceutical products identified through the use of Diogenes- based specialty software.

Fee-For-Services business
MMI will market Diogenes as a service to companies with large complex databases that do not have the data mining capability of MMI. Initially, MMI intends to focus on companies that have a high need for spectral and mixture analysis. These companies include the large pharmaceutical and chemical companies that have a tradition of outsourcing analytical services.

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Minerva Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Product/Service: Cancer diagnosis and therapy
Location: Baltimore, MD
Contact: Gary Siebert
gsiebert@minervapharmaceuticals.com
410-752-2221

www.minervapharmaceuticals.com

 

Minerva Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has exclusively licensed technology enabling a completely new mode of cancer diagnosis and therapy uniquely associated with the "malignant" state. Testing to date has shown 100% sensitivity and specificity for malignancy in both tissue and blood samples. These new generation diagnostic and therapeutic products allow the whole range of human cancers to be managed at a much earlier stage of their development - before they become life threatening.

 

Minerva Pharmaceuticals, Inc. plans to rapidly penetrate the $18 billion cancer market through partnerships with recognized diagnostic and pharmaceutical market leaders. The Company is in discussions for rights to its technology in selected diagnostic and therapeutic market segments.

 

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NewCo

2nd Prize Winner-
Biotechnology Business Plan Competition, May, 2000

Product/Service: Xenotransplantation
Location: Blacksburg, VA
Contact: Paul Rohricht, VP of Business Development, PPL Therapeutics Inc.
prohrich@ppl-therapeutics.com
(610) 682-0444

 

PPL Therapeutics Inc. Spinout "Newco" Summary

Over 62,000 Americans are now waiting to receive donated hearts, lungs, livers, kidneys and pancreases. A new name is added to the list every 16 minutes, and every day, 11 people die waiting. The U.S. spends between $30-$40 Billion annually in end stage organ failure treatment.

NewCo's mission is to address this medical problem through the development and commercialization of xenotransplantation, the transfer of organs or tissues from pigs to humans. NewCo's technology platform is comprehensive for all known sources of xenorejection, and includes:

• Use of cloned pigs that have the key xenoantigen removed through gene targeting and "knockout" (Newco's founding investor PPL Therapeutics Inc. announced the world's first cloned pigs in March 2000);
• The addition of genes which restrict complement cascade, downregulate adhesion molecule formation, and restore anticoagulation properties;
• The use of tolerance to "prime" the recipient's immune system prior to the introduction of the xenograft

NewCo's strategies have been studied extensively in vitro, and proof of concept has been demonstrated. NewCo's funding requirement for this stage of development is $14 million total, to be used over 4 years to complete progress to human clinical trials.

Xenotransplantation offers the opportunity to address a significant unmet clinical need, and if successful, will yield a significant return on investment. Market research has estimated that the solid organ xenotransplantation market is $6 billion by 2010. The market for xenograft tissues and cells is estimated to be potentially larger, thus providing a market opportunity in excess of $10 billion.

 

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Quicksilver Discovery, Inc.

Product/Service: Structural genomics software
Location: San Francisco, CA
Contact: Diosdado Rey Banatao
reyban@cgl.ucsf.edu
(650) 854-6319

We are an application service provider (ASP) of structural genomics software. Our licensable technology enables pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and academic researchers to rapidly discover patentable lead compounds from unclassified gene sequences. Our platform consists of a computing environment designed specifically to address every step of the post-genomic drug development path from data visualization to structural analysis and protein engineering. We intend to capture a dominant market share by supplying economical, yet powerful, analysis tools. We have a technology platform for structural genomics research deployed over the Internet directly to the desktops of pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and academic researchers. Our revenue comes from direct subscription to online services including access to our technology platform and data hosting services. As an application service provider, we price our services according to the needs of each user. This flexibility enables our users to balance their financial and scientific needs. Additional revenue streams include custom consulting services and banner advertising. We will market our services through a direct sales force, focusing first on the under-served sectors of the market.

 

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