The Biotech world is booming. Scientists around the world are devoted to researching biological processes in order to develop more powerful and useful technology and pharmaceuticals. However, success is not guaranteed, there are winners and losers in this business, and so in this article, we want to take a look at four Biotech firms that we believe have been behind some incredible success in recent years.
Firstly…
What factors can be used to call a Biotech business ‘successful’?
We are of the opinion that success is derived from:
- Senior Management being ready to give time and resources to a project to ensure it progresses properly
- Strong considerations for future needs and trends
- Cross-departmental collaboration and a cohesive strategy
- Be adaptable and versatile to potential changes and the uncertainty of the industry
- Embracing creativity to come up with unique and innovative solutions
Success Story 1: Bulb, UK
This UK-based green energy startup is doing impressive work in the field of eco-technology, renewable energy, and hydrogen technology. Quite rapidly it has become the UK’s biggest supplier of green energy, serving over 300,000 customers with an average annual growth rate of 400%. Their power is sourced from farm waste and hydrogen power plants, helping customers move away from fossil fuels.
Their business started by trying to solve the issue of huge suppliers taking advantage of customers with low-quality energy and overpriced tariffs. They now aim to effectively replicate the good work done by banking startups Monzo and Revolut, in taking on the industry’s behemoths. Another successful aspect of their model is that they offer to pay the cancellation fee on behalf of their customers in order to get them to switch, removing one major hurdle for consumers.
Success Story 2: BiomassProtein™, Denmark
This Danish agricultural biotech company experienced huge success in 2019 by developing a technology for building and operating plant protein factories. Whilst the world quarrels about where the best sources of protein come from BiomassProtein™ has found a take to extract protein from one of the world’s most abundant and affordable green crop sources. Grass. Yes, their technology can turn grass into a protein food source for people and animals, which is going to make a huge difference to future food sources as the world looks for alternative food supplies.
Success Story 3: Proteus Digital Health, USA
This Health Monitoring Biotech firm from Silicon Valley has been described as a major pioneer in digital therapy. Their work is spread across several fields and is being impressively managed, with more than 450 active patents. The technology itself often relates to sensors and apps and how they function with health monitoring and drug administration.
Smart Tablets, which, once consumed, can send signals containing information about the patient’s activity. This is going to be a very important technology for mental health patients as well as those going through chemotherapy, as it will be able to track how well the body is absorbing medicines. There are concerns about privacy, hacking, and intrusive behaviour from insurance companies, so this technology is not yet widely available.
Success Story 4: Vaxart Inc, USA
San Francisco based clinical-stage oral vaccine biotech company Vaxart is one of the big winners so far in the race to develop a vaccine for the novel Coronavirus, COVID-19. Whilst no biotech company can claim to have made a solution, Vaxart Inc was one of the first companies to announce plans to attempt it on January 31st 2020. Since the turn of the year, their stock is up over 500% and the progress seems to be coming along nicely in the form of ‘an oral vaccine administered using a room temperature-stable tablet’. As of March 31st, the company announced that they have five different vaccine candidates ready for preclinical trials. Each of their COVID-19 vaccine designs is based on different combinations of coronavirus antigen and once trials have been done (expected in the second half of 2020), the best performing vaccine is expected to be put forward for manufacturing.
“The effectiveness of Vaxart’s oral vaccine technology has been demonstrated in clinical trials. Developing a vaccine to meet this current public health threat is very important to all of us at Vaxart,” said Sean Tucker, Ph.D., Vaxart’s Chief Scientific Officer.
Why your team should be inspired by biotech
As one of the world’s most interesting, innovative, and ambitious industries, it offers an opportunity to improve, save, and enrich our lives. For investors and big thinkers, it offers an opportunity to make a lot of money and write your name in the history books. For risk-takers, the excitement is balanced by great expense, as it is not cheap or easy to get a world-changing project off the ground.
What to do next?
If you’re particularly interested in the technical-level analysis of the future of the biotech industry, you’d perhaps enjoy this free white paper.
Want to learn about StratX ExL’s contribution to the Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals industries? See more about when we are doing at CentrX Biopharma.
You might also enjoy reading this article about the top six development and leadership challenges in biopharma, where we’ve asked and answered various questions about the future of the biopharma industry.
