"InterAx technology will allow discriminating between good and bad drug candidates in order to start clinical trials with higher probability to succeed."
22.07.2015
The ETH and PSI spin-off InterAx Biotech won the second stage of Venture Kick and its CHF 20’000 of pre-seed capital, in June 2015. We interviewed co-founder Martin Ostermaier, a biochemist, inventor and an ETH pioneer fellow about the great news - and about Interax's plans for the future.
 Aurélien Rizk, Martin Ostermaier and Luca Zenone have many different personal and professional skills and form a really motivated team.
|
 |
Are you happy to have won the second stage of Venture Kick?
Yes of course we are happy! The Venture Kick jury saw the potential of InterAx during the first stage and decided to support the team. Winning the second stage confirms that we have made an important step, which is converting the business idea into a solid business case. We are now in the third round also because we have improved in communicating both the value of our biotech product for the customer and the business case to a very heterogeneous group of experts.
What kind of technology are you developing?
Nine of ten drug candidates never reach the market, this costs Pharma each year billions of francs. InterAx technology will allow selecting better drug candidates with higher chance to succeed for approval; that means more drugs eventually reach the market and improve patients’ lives. We focus on GPCRs, which are the biological target of 40% of all modern drugs. Currently, Pharma still lacks information in understanding how drugs act on GPCRs leading to underinformed decisions for choosing the right drug candidates. InterAx develops reagents, cell lines and software that together improve efficiency of drug discovery for GPCRs.
What stage is your startup today and what do you plan next?
InterAx Biotech is currently spinning off the ETH Zurich and the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Villigen, where the technology has been developed. It is seed-funded and supported by both institutions. Currently, we are implementing the technology at PSI in a first product, which will facilitate drug discovery for treating ocular diseases. On the business side we are very active in customer visits, discussions with investors and industry experts. Collecting their feedbacks allows us to better align our product development strategy with current market needs.
How did the idea of InterAx Biotech come up?
During his PhD, Martin worked on the stabilization of a protein complex consisting of a GPCR and another protein. At some point, we realized that we had a unique and novel technology in our hands that we protected by filing a patent application. The ETH Pioneer Fellowship gave then the financial support and access to a great network of experts and entrepreneurs for starting a business right after. The name InterAx is a blend word between the words “interaction” and “arrestin” and reflects the mechanism on which the technology is based on.
What distinguishes your technology from your competitors’?
A drug induces a very specific cellular signaling. “Good” and “bad” drug candidates can be discriminated by the cellular signaling that they induce. While good drug candidates induce signaling that leads only to the desired effect in the patient, bad ones originate adverse effects. Competitive technologies do not allow to discriminate between good and bad drug candidates easily. They cannot dissect the complex signaling networks unambiguously. InterAx technology will allow discriminating between good and bad drug candidates in order to start clinical trials with higher probability to succeed.
Why did you apply for Venture Kick and what are the benefits of such a program for you?
Venture Kick is widely recognized as the best Startup advancement program in Switzerland. Since it is also known as an excellent pre-selection process for promising start-ups, passing the different stages is for us a certificate of quality. It gives credibility and visibility, and access to the highly interconnected Swiss Biotech network. Apart from the money, the Kickers Camps are the most important benefit for the entrepreneurs. During the camps we were challenged and forced to improve our business case by getting very direct and highly valuable feedback from experienced entrepreneurs and investors. The lessons learned were essential and brought us faster and more focused forward.
In your opinion, how did you convince the jury on stage two?
This is an hard question to answer. Maybe at first the team with broad skillset, which was able to attract a unique advisory board. Second, the wide applicability of the IP-protected technology in different disease areas which allows us to scale up our business step by step and reach different markets. Third, we have already a marketable product prototype and a potential customer which is going to test it. Good results may lead to a larger volume of sales for InterAx, and the willingness of the potential customer to buy and test our second product. Finally, we showed that we could already convince investors and raise money for our startup.
And how do you think you will convince the jury at the final?
We think we need to work harder on some aspects of our business case and show faster execution. This means we need to make larger sales revenue by attracting more customers or increasing sales volume per project within the next six to eight months. A key goal is also to ensure R&D resources by raising funds for product development and attract skilled scientists into our team. In conclusion, we need to show that we can increase the value of InterAx Biotech.
Tell us something about you that nobody knows!
Maybe you already know that we speak three out of four Swiss official languages: German, French and Italian? However, we are used to communicate in English within our team. Or that Luca races at international Enduro mountain bike competitions around Europe? Or that Aurélien owns a software company that develops physics simulation applications for fun and education? This is the strong and very motivated team that is working to make InterAx a successful Swiss biotech start-up.
Yes of course we are happy! The Venture Kick jury saw the potential of InterAx during the first stage and decided to support the team. Winning the second stage confirms that we have made an important step, which is converting the business idea into a solid business case. We are now in the third round also because we have improved in communicating both the value of our biotech product for the customer and the business case to a very heterogeneous group of experts.
What kind of technology are you developing?
Nine of ten drug candidates never reach the market, this costs Pharma each year billions of francs. InterAx technology will allow selecting better drug candidates with higher chance to succeed for approval; that means more drugs eventually reach the market and improve patients’ lives. We focus on GPCRs, which are the biological target of 40% of all modern drugs. Currently, Pharma still lacks information in understanding how drugs act on GPCRs leading to underinformed decisions for choosing the right drug candidates. InterAx develops reagents, cell lines and software that together improve efficiency of drug discovery for GPCRs.
What stage is your startup today and what do you plan next?
InterAx Biotech is currently spinning off the ETH Zurich and the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Villigen, where the technology has been developed. It is seed-funded and supported by both institutions. Currently, we are implementing the technology at PSI in a first product, which will facilitate drug discovery for treating ocular diseases. On the business side we are very active in customer visits, discussions with investors and industry experts. Collecting their feedbacks allows us to better align our product development strategy with current market needs.
How did the idea of InterAx Biotech come up?
During his PhD, Martin worked on the stabilization of a protein complex consisting of a GPCR and another protein. At some point, we realized that we had a unique and novel technology in our hands that we protected by filing a patent application. The ETH Pioneer Fellowship gave then the financial support and access to a great network of experts and entrepreneurs for starting a business right after. The name InterAx is a blend word between the words “interaction” and “arrestin” and reflects the mechanism on which the technology is based on.
What distinguishes your technology from your competitors’?
A drug induces a very specific cellular signaling. “Good” and “bad” drug candidates can be discriminated by the cellular signaling that they induce. While good drug candidates induce signaling that leads only to the desired effect in the patient, bad ones originate adverse effects. Competitive technologies do not allow to discriminate between good and bad drug candidates easily. They cannot dissect the complex signaling networks unambiguously. InterAx technology will allow discriminating between good and bad drug candidates in order to start clinical trials with higher probability to succeed.
Why did you apply for Venture Kick and what are the benefits of such a program for you?
Venture Kick is widely recognized as the best Startup advancement program in Switzerland. Since it is also known as an excellent pre-selection process for promising start-ups, passing the different stages is for us a certificate of quality. It gives credibility and visibility, and access to the highly interconnected Swiss Biotech network. Apart from the money, the Kickers Camps are the most important benefit for the entrepreneurs. During the camps we were challenged and forced to improve our business case by getting very direct and highly valuable feedback from experienced entrepreneurs and investors. The lessons learned were essential and brought us faster and more focused forward.
In your opinion, how did you convince the jury on stage two?
This is an hard question to answer. Maybe at first the team with broad skillset, which was able to attract a unique advisory board. Second, the wide applicability of the IP-protected technology in different disease areas which allows us to scale up our business step by step and reach different markets. Third, we have already a marketable product prototype and a potential customer which is going to test it. Good results may lead to a larger volume of sales for InterAx, and the willingness of the potential customer to buy and test our second product. Finally, we showed that we could already convince investors and raise money for our startup.
And how do you think you will convince the jury at the final?
We think we need to work harder on some aspects of our business case and show faster execution. This means we need to make larger sales revenue by attracting more customers or increasing sales volume per project within the next six to eight months. A key goal is also to ensure R&D resources by raising funds for product development and attract skilled scientists into our team. In conclusion, we need to show that we can increase the value of InterAx Biotech.
Tell us something about you that nobody knows!
Maybe you already know that we speak three out of four Swiss official languages: German, French and Italian? However, we are used to communicate in English within our team. Or that Luca races at international Enduro mountain bike competitions around Europe? Or that Aurélien owns a software company that develops physics simulation applications for fun and education? This is the strong and very motivated team that is working to make InterAx a successful Swiss biotech start-up.