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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.
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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
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- 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
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- 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
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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
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- 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
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- 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).
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- 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
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- 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
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- 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
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- 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
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- 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.
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- 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
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- 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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| Resources |
The Resources section also
has descriptions/links for law firms, angels groups, VC firms, TLOs,
etc. Everything an entrepreneur might find useful.
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