Team:Uppsala/PolicyPractices MicrobialDesigns

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document.getElementById("tab4").innerHTML = '<h2>Product properties</h2><p>The unique characteristics of our probiotic compared to generic drugs is that our product eliminates the pathogen without using antibiotics. This is a major asset for the future marketing of our product since antibiotic resistance is a well known and severe problem, making treatment of diseases more problematic.<br><br>The product will be easy to distribute as it will be produced as a pill, making it compatible with established drugs in respect to shipping. Both probiotics and antibiotics derives from cultivations of microorganisms grown in large batches. However, in comparison to probiotic drugs, antibiotics need to be extracted and purified from such cultivations. Thus the production of probiotic will be easier and also hopefully cheaper in comparison to antibiotic production.</p><h2>Target customers and positioning strategy</h2><p>Initially, to establish our product, we intended to target the Swedish market simply because of the convenience of location. However, according to our laws and regulation research, it’s difficult to get approval from appropriate authorities for such a product. It was further concluded that a better choice of location for establishment is the United States of America, where it’s easier to get companies authorized.<br><br>Target customers are people infected by the pathogen (<i>Yersinia enterocolitica</i>). To reach our customers we would approach hospitals and pharmaceutical companies and promote our product. By highlighting the threat of antibiotic resistance we believe that our product will be sought. Thus we will be able to establish a market which will be of major importance for the future success of the product.<br><br>The widespread of <i>Y. enterocolitica</i> is relatively low and seem to be most frequent in northern Europe and as an example, the disease affects about 500 - 800 people per year in Sweden.<sup><a href="#reference3">[1]</a></sup><sup><a href="#reference4">[2]</a></sup> Further, most infections are uncomplicated with most cases resolving themselves without further need of treatment. Hence it’s likely that the profit will be low if selling our product in the northern Europe. However we believe that our product will function as a stepping stone in the future development of pathogen killing probiotics, which hopefully can reduce the usage of antibiotics. Hence we believe that the logical regions, for marketing our product, are those which have problems with antibiotic resistance. Regions such as the United States, the western and southern parts of Europe have been identified as having high occurrence of antibiotic resistance. Thus these regions will be our main target for marketing our product [4].</p><h2>Size of the total market</h2><p>As described previously, the market is not particularly large as the infection rate is low and only those with a compromised immune system, such as elderly people or infants, will be needing treatment. Thus making it difficult to advance our product on the relatively small market.<br><br>If antibiotic resistance emerges to a level where many bacteria will be resistant, people will be forced to step out of their comfort zones and hopefully embrace this new technology. If we can evolve our technology into targeting pathogens that poses a greater threat than <i>Y. enterocolitica</i> we believe the market will expand at a fast rate.</p><h2>Promotions strategy (Commercial)</h2><p>There are many different ways when it comes to advertising a new product. When attracting customers you want to make sure to capture their attention in a memorable way. Another important aspect is the ability to reach as many people as possible. Hence we decided to make an animated infomercial. The goal of the infomercial was to show a schematic description of our modified probiotic and how it attacks the pathogen in the intestinal region. We determined that this would be a convenient and easy way to both describe and promote our product.<br><br>A lot of focus would be aimed towards providing the commercial to the hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. It is also highly important to combine the commercial with lectures to be able to thoroughly educate about our product and its focus on preventing antibiotic resistance.</p><h2>Summary</h2><p>As mentioned earlier, the market for treating <i>Y. enterocolitica</i> does not look promising, due to its low pathogenicity. However, if we manage to develop the idea of targeting other pathogens, we can be sure it will expand into a larger and more advantageous market.  If we can promote the probiotica properly, it stands a fair chance of competing against antibiotics and therefore preventing the increase of antibiotic resistance. In the long run, this will hopefully decrease the threat against future medical treatments, saving millions of lives.</p><ul class="reference"><li><a id="reference3">[1]</a>Wallén Norell , Annica et al. 2013-11-18. Infektion med <i>Y. enterocolitica</i>. www-dokument.http://www.socialstyrelsen.se/Lists/Artikelkatalog/Attachments/19253/2013-11-18.pdf (accessed: 2014-08-07)</li><li><a id="reference4">[2]</a>Brink, Erik. 2006-01-07.Yersinia vanligt i nordeuropeiskt griskött. www-dokument. http://ja.agriprim.com/nyheter/visaNyhet.asp?NyhetID=6001&highlight= (accessed:2014-08-07)</li><li>[3]Lavinsky, Dave. 2013-09-30. Marketing Plan Template: Exactly what to include. www-dokument.http://www.forbes.com/sites/davelavinsky/2013/09/30/marketing-plan-template-exactly-what-to-include/2/ (accessed: 2014-07-10)</li><li>[4]Farrar, Tabitha. 2014-07-25. Antibiotic Resistance is fast approaching. www-dokument. http://guardianlv.com/2014/07/antibiotics-resistance-is-fast-approaching/ (accessed: 2014-08-07)</li></ul>';
document.getElementById("tab4").innerHTML = '<h2>Product properties</h2><p>The unique characteristics of our probiotic compared to generic drugs is that our product eliminates the pathogen without using antibiotics. This is a major asset for the future marketing of our product since antibiotic resistance is a well known and severe problem, making treatment of diseases more problematic.<br><br>The product will be easy to distribute as it will be produced as a pill, making it compatible with established drugs in respect to shipping. Both probiotics and antibiotics derives from cultivations of microorganisms grown in large batches. However, in comparison to probiotic drugs, antibiotics need to be extracted and purified from such cultivations. Thus the production of probiotic will be easier and also hopefully cheaper in comparison to antibiotic production.</p><h2>Target customers and positioning strategy</h2><p>Initially, to establish our product, we intended to target the Swedish market simply because of the convenience of location. However, according to our laws and regulation research, it’s difficult to get approval from appropriate authorities for such a product. It was further concluded that a better choice of location for establishment is the United States of America, where it’s easier to get companies authorized.<br><br>Target customers are people infected by the pathogen (<i>Yersinia enterocolitica</i>). To reach our customers we would approach hospitals and pharmaceutical companies and promote our product. By highlighting the threat of antibiotic resistance we believe that our product will be sought. Thus we will be able to establish a market which will be of major importance for the future success of the product.<br><br>The widespread of <i>Y. enterocolitica</i> is relatively low and seem to be most frequent in northern Europe and as an example, the disease affects about 500 - 800 people per year in Sweden.<sup><a href="#reference3">[1]</a></sup><sup><a href="#reference4">[2]</a></sup> Further, most infections are uncomplicated with most cases resolving themselves without further need of treatment. Hence it’s likely that the profit will be low if selling our product in the northern Europe. However we believe that our product will function as a stepping stone in the future development of pathogen killing probiotics, which hopefully can reduce the usage of antibiotics. Hence we believe that the logical regions, for marketing our product, are those which have problems with antibiotic resistance. Regions such as the United States, the western and southern parts of Europe have been identified as having high occurrence of antibiotic resistance. Thus these regions will be our main target for marketing our product [4].</p><h2>Size of the total market</h2><p>As described previously, the market is not particularly large as the infection rate is low and only those with a compromised immune system, such as elderly people or infants, will be needing treatment. Thus making it difficult to advance our product on the relatively small market.<br><br>If antibiotic resistance emerges to a level where many bacteria will be resistant, people will be forced to step out of their comfort zones and hopefully embrace this new technology. If we can evolve our technology into targeting pathogens that poses a greater threat than <i>Y. enterocolitica</i> we believe the market will expand at a fast rate.</p><h2>Promotions strategy (Commercial)</h2><p>There are many different ways when it comes to advertising a new product. When attracting customers you want to make sure to capture their attention in a memorable way. Another important aspect is the ability to reach as many people as possible. Hence we decided to make an animated infomercial. The goal of the infomercial was to show a schematic description of our modified probiotic and how it attacks the pathogen in the intestinal region. We determined that this would be a convenient and easy way to both describe and promote our product.<br><br>A lot of focus would be aimed towards providing the commercial to the hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. It is also highly important to combine the commercial with lectures to be able to thoroughly educate about our product and its focus on preventing antibiotic resistance.</p><h2>Summary</h2><p>As mentioned earlier, the market for treating <i>Y. enterocolitica</i> does not look promising, due to its low pathogenicity. However, if we manage to develop the idea of targeting other pathogens, we can be sure it will expand into a larger and more advantageous market.  If we can promote the probiotica properly, it stands a fair chance of competing against antibiotics and therefore preventing the increase of antibiotic resistance. In the long run, this will hopefully decrease the threat against future medical treatments, saving millions of lives.</p><ul class="reference"><li><a id="reference3">[1]</a>Wallén Norell , Annica et al. 2013-11-18. Infektion med <i>Y. enterocolitica</i>. www-dokument.http://www.socialstyrelsen.se/Lists/Artikelkatalog/Attachments/19253/2013-11-18.pdf (accessed: 2014-08-07)</li><li><a id="reference4">[2]</a>Brink, Erik. 2006-01-07.Yersinia vanligt i nordeuropeiskt griskött. www-dokument. http://ja.agriprim.com/nyheter/visaNyhet.asp?NyhetID=6001&highlight= (accessed:2014-08-07)</li><li>[3]Lavinsky, Dave. 2013-09-30. Marketing Plan Template: Exactly what to include. www-dokument.http://www.forbes.com/sites/davelavinsky/2013/09/30/marketing-plan-template-exactly-what-to-include/2/ (accessed: 2014-07-10)</li><li>[4]Farrar, Tabitha. 2014-07-25. Antibiotic Resistance is fast approaching. www-dokument. http://guardianlv.com/2014/07/antibiotics-resistance-is-fast-approaching/ (accessed: 2014-08-07)</li></ul>';
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document.getElementById("tab5").innerHTML = '<h2>Budget</h2><br><p>To be able to build a company, we must have an approximate idea of the costs that will be involved in developing new designer microorganisms. For budget planning, we have consulted Anders Virtanen, professor at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at Uppsala University, who himself has been involved in starting the company Bioimics. Bioimics is a biotechnology company, which mainly focuses on developing new antibacterial drugs using RNA. Although their activities do not include design and modification of bacteria, their equipment and expertise concerning our field in biotechnology will be similar to ours, and therefore we considered it as a valid source of information.<br><br>When estimating the costs that are involved in building a company, two types of costs should be distinguished. The first type consists of operating costs. These are costs that are made during the production of products. In our case, the product is a microbial design with a potential for killing pathogens and the costs involved mostly consist of disposable equipment and other materials (such as enzymes and chemicals) that are deplenished during research. The rest of the operating costs consists of wages for the employees and external services (such as sending samples for sequencing).<br><br><i>Here are some examples of operating costs for our company:</i><br></p><table id="partsT"><tr><td>Disposable material/equipment</td><td>600 (Tkr)*</td></tr><tr><td>Salaries(including insurances, taxes etc)</td><td>4500 (Tkr)*</td></tr><tr><td>External services</td><td>2000 (Tkr)*</td></tr></table><p>* Tkr = One thousand Swedish Crowns<br><br>The other type of costs that have to be considered, consist of the assets of a company. These can be viewed as the property of a company. In our case, this includes material assets, material properties, such as a research facility and the machines and equipment that are used for developing microbial designs. It also includes immaterial assets, immaterial properties such as patents, liquid assets and financial resources that are needed to run the company.</p><br><br><i>Here are a few examples of the assets needed for Microbial Designs:</i><br></p><table id="partsT"><tr><td>Equipment (machines etc)</td><td>5000 (Tkr)</td></tr><tr><td>Rent for facility</td><td>300 (Tkr)</td></tr></table><br><p>In total, the costs for the first year of Microbial Designs are estimated to be approximately twelve million Swedish crowns. Microbial Designs is mostly involved in the early development of strains, selling developed concepts in the early stages of clinical trials. To get a return on our estimated required investments, this would necessitate selling such a developed strain for multiple tens of millions of Swedish crowns.<br><br>To make such an investment appealing to a larger pharmaceutical company would require the strain to earn more money than was invested in it, that is, to split even. While it may not be necessary to split even completely in the first year, the strain’s revenues should be greater than its operating costs. In that way, the strain will make more money over time than it costs to produce it.<br><br>If we assume that the operation costs remain constant for the pharmaceutical company that has acquired the strain that was developed to target and kill <i>Y. enterocolitica</i>, a modest estimate of the yearly revenues that would be required for the strain to be profitable is nine million Swedish crowns per year. When taking into account the number of patients that are infected by <i>Y. enterocolitica</i> each year (500-800), this would mean that our price for every patient treated should be around ten thousand Swedish crowns per year.<br><br>This substantial sum of money might prove to be too high for a disease that can also be treated through antibiotics, at least for now. Furthermore, this price per patient treated does not take the steep rise of costs into account that occur during clinical trials. It is therefore questionable whether revenues of nine million Swedish crowns per year will suffice for Microbial Design’s client to profit on their investment.</p>';
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document.getElementById("tab5").innerHTML = '<h2>Budget</h2><p>To be able to build a company, we must have an approximate idea of the costs that will be involved in developing new designer microorganisms. For budget planning, we have consulted Anders Virtanen, professor at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at Uppsala University, who himself has been involved in starting the company Bioimics. Bioimics is a biotechnology company, which mainly focuses on developing new antibacterial drugs using RNA. Although their activities do not include design and modification of bacteria, their equipment and expertise concerning our field in biotechnology will be similar to ours, and therefore we considered it as a valid source of information.<br><br>When estimating the costs that are involved in building a company, two types of costs should be distinguished. The first type consists of operating costs. These are costs that are made during the production of products. In our case, the product is a microbial design with a potential for killing pathogens and the costs involved mostly consist of disposable equipment and other materials (such as enzymes and chemicals) that are deplenished during research. The rest of the operating costs consists of wages for the employees and external services (such as sending samples for sequencing).<br><br><i>Here are some examples of operating costs for our company:</i><br></p><table id="partsT"><tr><td>Disposable material/equipment</td><td>600 (Tkr)*</td></tr><tr><td>Salaries(including insurances, taxes etc)</td><td>4500 (Tkr)*</td></tr><tr><td>External services</td><td>2000 (Tkr)*</td></tr></table><p>* Tkr = One thousand Swedish Crowns<br><br>The other type of costs that have to be considered, consist of the assets of a company. These can be viewed as the property of a company. In our case, this includes material assets, material properties, such as a research facility and the machines and equipment that are used for developing microbial designs. It also includes immaterial assets, immaterial properties such as patents, liquid assets and financial resources that are needed to run the company.</p><br><br><i>Here are a few examples of the assets needed for Microbial Designs:</i><br></p><table id="partsT"><tr><td>Equipment (machines etc)</td><td>5000 (Tkr)</td></tr><tr><td>Rent for facility</td><td>300 (Tkr)</td></tr></table><br><p>In total, the costs for the first year of Microbial Designs are estimated to be approximately twelve million Swedish crowns. Microbial Designs is mostly involved in the early development of strains, selling developed concepts in the early stages of clinical trials. To get a return on our estimated required investments, this would necessitate selling such a developed strain for multiple tens of millions of Swedish crowns.<br><br>To make such an investment appealing to a larger pharmaceutical company would require the strain to earn more money than was invested in it, that is, to split even. While it may not be necessary to split even completely in the first year, the strain’s revenues should be greater than its operating costs. In that way, the strain will make more money over time than it costs to produce it.<br><br>If we assume that the operation costs remain constant for the pharmaceutical company that has acquired the strain that was developed to target and kill <i>Y. enterocolitica</i>, a modest estimate of the yearly revenues that would be required for the strain to be profitable is nine million Swedish crowns per year. When taking into account the number of patients that are infected by <i>Y. enterocolitica</i> each year (500-800), this would mean that our price for every patient treated should be around ten thousand Swedish crowns per year.<br><br>This substantial sum of money might prove to be too high for a disease that can also be treated through antibiotics, at least for now. Furthermore, this price per patient treated does not take the steep rise of costs into account that occur during clinical trials. It is therefore questionable whether revenues of nine million Swedish crowns per year will suffice for Microbial Design’s client to profit on their investment.</p>';
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document.getElementById("tab6").innerHTML = '<h2>Financing</h2><br><p>One  of the major challenges for starting a company is to get the start-up capital. To understand this and try to find good solutions we have held interviews with several successful entrepreneurs and made a summary of the possibilities to get funding for our first biotech startup.</p><h2>Different sources of capital</h2><p>There are several sources for a startup to get capital, each with their respective positives and negatives. We will discuss about venture capital, private capital and loans, stock market, crowd funding and funds.<br><br>Private capital is going in with your own money to support the startup. This was the most common method used by Ulf Landegren, a professor at Uppsala University that has  started several companies. He told us that this is the preferred alternative since it gives you full control over the company. You will have decided what is prioritized and you do not risk it getting sold to other companies when you do not want to sell it. Although according to Vohora et al. (2003)<sup><a href="#reference7">[1]</a></sup> guidance from someone that knows business and industry is very important. You will also lose your money if the company does not break even.<br><br>Venture capital and business angels could be interesting since they do not only provide a source of capital but also experience. Venture capitalists are investors who try to make profit out of funding start-ups and then selling them off at a higher prize. Business angels are similar, but are more focused on helping your company develop. According to Landegren both venture capitalists and business angels have often taken their own loans and are therefore in need of a high return, sometimes as much as five times the invested sum. This might lead to harsh treatment of your idea where you will need to compensate and change it as they need to invest more and therefore will want more control over the company. No matter how much progress your company is doing it will also probably lead to selling of the company within ten years even if your company is doing good. This was the case with Ulfs first company which he started in USA. The company was going good and was sold off at a high profit after about 6 years.<br><br>Another alternative is the stock market, though this can often not be the single source of capital but is coupled with private capital and/or institutions. This is a tougher version of venture capitalists since they will require you to have better proof and a stronger business plan. It will give you more control of the company though, and you can choose how much you want to give away. Biogaia used this alternative together with their own capital. However, they had come further in their business and also had knowledge about industry and entrepreneurship. They do not recommend to use the stock market as a source unless you developed your company further and are good at business plans.<br><br>A new emerging source of startup capital is crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is a term for asking a lot of people to invest a small sum into your idea. Thier profit is often given via pre-orders, given credit and involvement in the process of the idea. Since the sums are often quite small you either need a cheap company to fund or a lot of people. As such, crowdfunding is suited for ideas that have a wide interest amongst the public, eg. everyday products. Making crowd funding work for medical startups can therefore be really tough, and requires you to tackle a disease which affects many and not to expect to get all of your capital via this source. Since quite a low percentage of the population worldwide gets infected with our pathogen, crowdfunding is not suitable for our project. Further on, hospitals are our main customer and will most likely not fund crowdfunding programs.<br><br>A backbone of all startups are funds. There are a large amount of possibilities but most of them do not provide enough capital to fund the entire process; they could even require you to have different sources of funding. However, by combining different funds you could come a long way. Some common Swedish funds are <i>Industrifonden</i>, governmental <i>Almi</i> and <i>Vinnova</i>. Some governments have programs to help you fund certain ideas that would not receive funding otherwise. One example of this is the Orphan Drug Act in the United States, which you can apply for if you are treating rare diseases. It provides support with both protection of your idea via enhanced patent protection and funding via clinical research subsidies. This is perfect for our idea, but would require us to put our focus on the market in the United States.<br><br>To get any of these funding options, presentation of the business idea is vital. Most startups fail to receive funding by not having a good business plan enough, and in particular not having a solid business idea.</p><h2>Summary</h2><p>Your first company should be founded by help of venture capitalist or business angels and funds. That way you will be able to get both the capital and the knowledge to make your company sustainable. Though you need to be ready to sell that company and the idea. If it works out well you will have enough money to pursue the next company with your own capital and therefore control it yourself.</p><ul class="reference"><li><a id="reference7">[1]</a> Lockett A., Vohora A., Wright M., Critical junctures in the development of university high-tech spinout companies, Elsevier 2003</li></ul>';
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document.getElementById("tab6").innerHTML = '<h2>Financing</h2><p>One  of the major challenges for starting a company is to get the start-up capital. To understand this and try to find good solutions we have held interviews with several successful entrepreneurs and made a summary of the possibilities to get funding for our first biotech startup.</p><h2>Different sources of capital</h2><p>There are several sources for a startup to get capital, each with their respective positives and negatives. We will discuss about venture capital, private capital and loans, stock market, crowd funding and funds.<br><br>Private capital is going in with your own money to support the startup. This was the most common method used by Ulf Landegren, a professor at Uppsala University that has  started several companies. He told us that this is the preferred alternative since it gives you full control over the company. You will have decided what is prioritized and you do not risk it getting sold to other companies when you do not want to sell it. Although according to Vohora et al. (2003)<sup><a href="#reference7">[1]</a></sup> guidance from someone that knows business and industry is very important. You will also lose your money if the company does not break even.<br><br>Venture capital and business angels could be interesting since they do not only provide a source of capital but also experience. Venture capitalists are investors who try to make profit out of funding start-ups and then selling them off at a higher prize. Business angels are similar, but are more focused on helping your company develop. According to Landegren both venture capitalists and business angels have often taken their own loans and are therefore in need of a high return, sometimes as much as five times the invested sum. This might lead to harsh treatment of your idea where you will need to compensate and change it as they need to invest more and therefore will want more control over the company. No matter how much progress your company is doing it will also probably lead to selling of the company within ten years even if your company is doing good. This was the case with Ulfs first company which he started in USA. The company was going good and was sold off at a high profit after about 6 years.<br><br>Another alternative is the stock market, though this can often not be the single source of capital but is coupled with private capital and/or institutions. This is a tougher version of venture capitalists since they will require you to have better proof and a stronger business plan. It will give you more control of the company though, and you can choose how much you want to give away. Biogaia used this alternative together with their own capital. However, they had come further in their business and also had knowledge about industry and entrepreneurship. They do not recommend to use the stock market as a source unless you developed your company further and are good at business plans.<br><br>A new emerging source of startup capital is crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is a term for asking a lot of people to invest a small sum into your idea. Thier profit is often given via pre-orders, given credit and involvement in the process of the idea. Since the sums are often quite small you either need a cheap company to fund or a lot of people. As such, crowdfunding is suited for ideas that have a wide interest amongst the public, eg. everyday products. Making crowd funding work for medical startups can therefore be really tough, and requires you to tackle a disease which affects many and not to expect to get all of your capital via this source. Since quite a low percentage of the population worldwide gets infected with our pathogen, crowdfunding is not suitable for our project. Further on, hospitals are our main customer and will most likely not fund crowdfunding programs.<br><br>A backbone of all startups are funds. There are a large amount of possibilities but most of them do not provide enough capital to fund the entire process; they could even require you to have different sources of funding. However, by combining different funds you could come a long way. Some common Swedish funds are <i>Industrifonden</i>, governmental <i>Almi</i> and <i>Vinnova</i>. Some governments have programs to help you fund certain ideas that would not receive funding otherwise. One example of this is the Orphan Drug Act in the United States, which you can apply for if you are treating rare diseases. It provides support with both protection of your idea via enhanced patent protection and funding via clinical research subsidies. This is perfect for our idea, but would require us to put our focus on the market in the United States.<br><br>To get any of these funding options, presentation of the business idea is vital. Most startups fail to receive funding by not having a good business plan enough, and in particular not having a solid business idea.</p><h2>Summary</h2><p>Your first company should be founded by help of venture capitalist or business angels and funds. That way you will be able to get both the capital and the knowledge to make your company sustainable. Though you need to be ready to sell that company and the idea. If it works out well you will have enough money to pursue the next company with your own capital and therefore control it yourself.</p><ul class="reference"><li><a id="reference7">[1]</a> Lockett A., Vohora A., Wright M., Critical junctures in the development of university high-tech spinout companies, Elsevier 2003</li></ul>';
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document.getElementById("tab7").innerHTML = '<h2>Reflections</h2><br><p>A problem that we have run into during the development of our business idea concerns the profitability of our product. Diseases caused by <i>Y. enterocolitica</i> are generally mild and occur quite infrequently. This makes it unattractive for large medical companies to develop our designs further. This does not necessarily form a problem directly for Microbial Designs, however, because our design activities can initially be financed by public funding.<br><br>The public money flow, however, does not suffice for developing the design to a real-life medical treatment. To show that our designs can result in clinically valuable products, our first design needs to be further developed. In that way, the lack of profitability of our <i>Y. enterocolitica</i>-targeting bacteria results in a bottle-neck.<br><br>Microbial Designs seems to have walked in to a dead end that often traps academics, starting to work with an idea before performing a thorough market analysis. As is remarked in an article from Vohora et al. about spin-off development “universities have lots of well-developed technologies, but with little proof of concept, no proof of market, and no commercial management.” <sup><a href="#reference8">[1]</a></sup><br><br>To tackle this challenge, our strategical plan would be to redirect our efforts to  a pathogen that poses a more imminent threat to human health. If these designs are then developed, it will be more attractive for established medical companies to work further with this specific design. If a design has been successfully developed by these companies that work further downstream in the development process, this will prove the promise of designing microbes for combating disease. Furthermore, it will add a brand new treatment to the inventory that is available for doctors that are fighting antibiotic-resistant diseases.</p><ul class="reference"><li><a id="reference8">[1]</a> Vohora A, Wright M, Lockett A. 2004. Critical junctures in the development of university high-tech spinout companies. Res Policy 33: 147-175.</li></ul>';
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document.getElementById("tab7").innerHTML = '<h2>Reflections</h2><p>A problem that we have run into during the development of our business idea concerns the profitability of our product. Diseases caused by <i>Y. enterocolitica</i> are generally mild and occur quite infrequently. This makes it unattractive for large medical companies to develop our designs further. This does not necessarily form a problem directly for Microbial Designs, however, because our design activities can initially be financed by public funding.<br><br>The public money flow, however, does not suffice for developing the design to a real-life medical treatment. To show that our designs can result in clinically valuable products, our first design needs to be further developed. In that way, the lack of profitability of our <i>Y. enterocolitica</i>-targeting bacteria results in a bottle-neck.<br><br>Microbial Designs seems to have walked in to a dead end that often traps academics, starting to work with an idea before performing a thorough market analysis. As is remarked in an article from Vohora et al. about spin-off development “universities have lots of well-developed technologies, but with little proof of concept, no proof of market, and no commercial management.” <sup><a href="#reference8">[1]</a></sup><br><br>To tackle this challenge, our strategical plan would be to redirect our efforts to  a pathogen that poses a more imminent threat to human health. If these designs are then developed, it will be more attractive for established medical companies to work further with this specific design. If a design has been successfully developed by these companies that work further downstream in the development process, this will prove the promise of designing microbes for combating disease. Furthermore, it will add a brand new treatment to the inventory that is available for doctors that are fighting antibiotic-resistant diseases.</p><ul class="reference"><li><a id="reference8">[1]</a> Vohora A, Wright M, Lockett A. 2004. Critical junctures in the development of university high-tech spinout companies. Res Policy 33: 147-175.</li></ul>';
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