Ourotech develops personalized cancer treatments using a proprietary hydrogel scaffold to test drug resistance. The company grows tumor samples in a 96-well plate using the hydrogel to test drugs and combinations, calculate dosages, and treat patients. Preliminary results show the hydrogel model matches human drug resistance levels. Ourotech seeks $1.5 million in funding to expand preclinical trials with hospitals and pharmaceutical partners to optimize products and services testing drug resistance for personalized cancer treatment.
2. 1st line treatment
Herceptin combination
2nd line treatment
T-DM1
3rd line treatment
Xeloda
4th line treatment
Hormone therapy
Example: HER2+ Breast Cancer
4. The Problem
Tumors can be resistant due to:
- Genetic resistance/mutation
- Tumor microenvironment
- Interaction with other cancer cells
- Interaction with healthy cells
5. The Solution
Obtain patient tumor sample from
biopsy
Grow tumors in 96 well plate using proprietary
hydrogel
Test drug resistance of drugs/combinations
Calculate human dosage
Treat patient
6. Proof of Concept: IC50
Human IC50: 702nM Ourotech IC50: 600~650nM Alginate IC50: 200nM
10. Team
Duleeka Ranatunga, CEO Prof Jonathan Blay Prof Shirley Tang William Lin, Head of R&D
Christina Ryu, Business
Development
Ali Nikdel, R&DMichael Kim, Head of
Finance
11. Funding Roadmap
Strategic
partnership with
hospitals for
preclinical trials
Strategic
partnership with
big pharma client
for clinical trials
and distribution
Start generating
revenue by
pharmaceutical
drug testing
services
Optimize product
based on drug
testing and
preclinical results
Seed Series A
22. • ~$10 000 per drug (10
dosage ATP assay)
• 30-40% profit margins
• Sales in 3-5 year contracts
• Genentech, Novartis, big
pharma
Revenue model
$3.5B $25.8 B
Pharmaceuticals Clinics
•In-house tests
•Consumable supply
•Stanford, Labcorp
For the cancer cell culture, we have developed our first hydrogel product, Genesis, which is applicable to late-stage breast, colon, and brain cancer. We have 2 patents pending. And testing each drug or drug combo in 96-well plate format costs less than $10 worth of material.
For current method of determining cancer treatment, first, the patient’s tumor will be screened for various cancer-related genes. Based on the presence of certain genes, the doctor will classify the patient into a cancer subtype. This piece of information is combined with other treatment variables such as cancer stage and past treatment records from other cancer patients to estimate what drug to use and at what dosage.
After drug exposure, we use an ATP assay to determine tumor response. This is a plate-based assay that enables high-throughput screening.
Here is an ATP assay curve showing breast cancer cell response to doxorubicin, which is a gold standard chemo drug. The IC50 value is defined as the drug concentration that kills or suppresses 50% of cells, and is used to determine if a drug is safe and effective.
We have proven a higher than 90% cell viability with Genesis before drug exposure on multiple cell lines including HER2-positive breast cancer. Green circles are live cells and red ones are dead.
For revenue generation in pharma space, sales are done according to industry standard and this gives us about $3,500 of profit for each drug tested. For clinics, the markup depends on whether they ship tumors to us for testing or we supply materials for them to do the testing.
With pharma companies, we specify the number of drugs tested per year. Annual fee for up to a certain number of drugs
We will be spending most of the money getting to clinical trials, growing sales, and expanding the team.