Company Profile:
BeneVir Biopharm, Inc.
Our cancer therapeutic is designed to induce the immune system to recognize and rid the body of two types of tumor cell. The first type is responsive to current immunotherapies, and many patients experience complete remissions. Tumor cells of the second type have evolved to hide from the immune system and are refractory to current immunotherapies. These tumor cells are ultimately responsible for tumor recurrence and poor clinical outcomes. To our knowledge, there is no technology in development that can induce immunity to both types of tumor cell. We feel we have a unique perspective in the emerging field of cancer immunotherapy and that our technology will exhibit enhanced clinical benefit for a wide range of cancer patients.
Q: Please tell us how your business idea was conceived. Was there an "aha" moment or did it evolve gradually?
A: Our business idea was conceived as a result of two "aha" moments. The first was when, after deciphering its tumor-killing mechanism, we saw how to improve on a product that had completed its final human testing phase. The second was when we discovered that the strategy we chose to make a better product also had the ability to solve a big problem in cancer immunotherapy. It was sort of like building a better mouse trap and then realizing that the mouse trap also has the ability to train your hamster to catch mice.
Q: What's the most inventive, innovative, or disruptive aspect of your initiative?
A: The best cancer treatments reduce tumor size or slow tumor progression. But complete, durable responses--remissions--are still very rare for solid tumors. The emerging field of cancer immunotherapy endeavors to harness the immune system in the fight against cancer with the goal of eradicating cancer cells as if they were a common bacterial or viral infection. Like viruses and bacteria, however, cancer has the ability to evolve and evade elimination by the immune system. Our approach to cancer immunotherapy is designed to induce the immune system to recognize and eliminate a patient's cancer cells and also guard against the type of cancer cells that evolve to evade immune elimination. This could dramatically increase the frequency and duration of complete tumor remissions.
Q: How will it help people live to their greatest potential or contribute to making the world healthier?
A: We are all familiar with the “c” word. We call it the “c” word because it is a mysterious killer we are often powerless to conquer. The “c” word entered our lexicon only after the “p” word (pneumonia) was felled by the dawn of the antibiotic era. Before antibiotics, a pneumonia diagnosis was the equivalent of our modern day “c” diagnosis and transformed the sickbed into the deathbed. Everyone working on cancer therapy dreams of an antibiotic-like breakthrough for cancer treatment. We believe our approach could be an important step in achieving that dream.
Q: Five years from now, what would you like to be able to say has been your most important contribution to health?
A: In five years, we hope to have clearly demonstrated in a human clinical trial that the immune system, when properly stimulated, is able to eliminate, quickly and efficiently, even those cancers that have evolved to evade the immune system. We expect that this will nucleate the creation and testing of combination regimens with other therapies that are synergistic with our approach, much like how combination therapy has been so effective in treating HIV infection.
Q: What single word or phrase best describes the culture of your startup and why?
A: Garage Biotech. Compared to digital tech, biotech is very capital-intensive with a decade-long product development timeline. The biotech startup ecology, especially in oncology therapeutics, is therefore heavily skewed towards wealthy individuals who have the capital and investor networks to ensure long term financing and the creation of costly operational infrastructure. This limits the list of potential breakthrough technologies to those that fit the biases and group-think of a small, homogenous cadre. BeneVir’s founders have kept their day jobs while conducting BeneVir’s seed-funded research out of the equivalent of their garages. This lean and focused model ensures the team remains intact, incentivized, and focused on building the company to the point where long-term and stable financing is secured.