Summary
The therapeutic product of Herophilus aims to fill the market gap of cellular immunotherapies for pancreatic cancer in a novel, safe and effective way. It allows more patients to have access to cutting-edge therapy, while ensuring cost-effectiveness within a niche market. Our “off-the-shelf”’ product is readily available for immediate use and provides three different delivery ways, to cater administration to the patient’s needs. It prioritizes human life, aiming to eliminate mortality rates, advance the life quality and increase the lifespan of individuals battling this formidable disease. Therefore, we believe in people and building trust bonds among patients and healthcare professionals. In this part, we aim to demonstrate the development of the entrepreneurial aspect of our project, during the process of bringing an innovative therapy from the lab to the patient, in our effort to establish our place within the market and grow as a business.
Receiving feedback for the constant improvement of our therapy and adjusting it to the patients’ needs is crucial for us. At the same time, we aspire to interact with healthcare professionals and pharmaceutical industry experts to evaluate our product regularly. Thus, we are pleased to see that the surveys we conducted in the initial stage of our Primary Market Research amid doctors, clinical pharmacists, researchers and representatives of pharmaceutical companies and regulatory authorities, show promising results for our product’s establishment within the market. Moreover, our SWOT and PEST analyses indicate there are plenty of favorable conditions supporting the entrepreneurial success of our therapy, while the competitors research further confirms this. We take into consideration every potential risk and weakness that our Risk Analysis proposes and we strive to avoid and eliminate them. Finally, by leveraging the TAM/SAM/SOM business model, we have realistically determined our goals, regarding our short term development and expansion to a broader market in the long run. These objectives are presented in our Cash Flow Statement, taking the cost sheet into account.
Our team has meticulously thought about a variety of funding resources to sustain our business. Furthermore, we have gained significant experience in fundraising within the context of our participation in the iGEM competition. Hence, we are happy to state that after evaluating such societal and financial parameters, we believe that our product’s future introduction to the market is very promising.
How do we ensure cost-effectiveness?
Our goal is to attain a more affordable price for our product in comparison to existing advanced therapy medicinal products, so that it is accessible to more patients. We accomplish this objective by taking three different measures. Firstly, we decided to establish our team as a spin-off company of the University of Patras in order to eliminate our profit and expenses, since we are utilizing the university’s facilities and machinery. Moreover, we plan to offer outcome-based reimbursement plans to reduce the final product’s cost. Specifically, the insurance provider will be able to pay for our therapy in different prespecified doses after predefined parameters are examined, such as the “relapse free survival” or the “disease free survival”. These criteria will be reviewed in certain predetermined time periods (e.g. 6 months, 1 year, 5 years). Afterwards, the insurance provider will proceed to deposit each dose for the payment of our product, according to the therapy’s outcome in the patient's health. In this way, we aim to contribute to the sustainability and efficiency of the insurance system and alleviate the financial burden of the healthcare system from the hospitalization of pancreatic cancer patients, by introducing an effective therapy in the market. Furthermore, by utilizing CAR-NK cells derived from iPSCs and not isolating NK cells through leukapheresis, we also financially relieve the healthcare system and reduce our therapy’s price, since we would need additional leukapheresis products from donors and thus, the depicted costs regarding this procedure would be greatly increased per production.
Business Model Canvas
In order to organize and navigate our company in the business world, we identified its main points, by developing the following business model canvas.
Market Analysis
SWOT Analysis
SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis is a way to identify and visualize our company’s strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats, so as to take the necessary measures to eliminate the latter two.
PEST Analysis
PEST analysis is a company management system which allows the assessment of political, economic, social and technological parameters influencing the business operation in order for it to become more competitive in the market.
Target Market-Customers
- TAM (Total Addressable Market/ Total Available Market): Regarding our therapeutic product, every hospital, clinic, and medical center worldwide could constitute this total market, defying any other limitation such as competition, geography, financial, or shipping limitations and regulations.
- SAM (Serviceable Addressable Market / Served Available Market): In our case, this specific segment of the market could comprise clinics, hospitals, and medical centers in Europe.
- SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market / Share of Market): For our therapeutic product, it consists of clinics, hospitals, and medical centers located in Greece, which is the base-country for our therapeutic tool.
Financial Analysis
Cost Sheet
Cash Flow Sheet
In the chart below, we present our company’s costs and income
Prospects
We present our company’s future plan in the following Gantt Chart.
