Sign up for the 2017 Health & Bio Team Dating, 21 November!

Ruth M. Risueño, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of Leukos Biotech, is one of the success stories to come out of this event that brings together scientists from the health and life sciences arena and businesspeople.

Health & Bio Team Dating, organised by the CataloniaBio association of companies, Biocat and Banc Sabadell, was launched in 2015 based on the fact that Catalonia has a rich ecosystem of great scientists, entrepreneurs, investors and institutions but lacks collaborations among these groups. So, on one hand there are many scientific projects that could be taken to market by new start-ups if only they had someone to take care of setting up a business plan and raising funds. On the other hand, there are many experts in business administration and management that want to set out on their own and find new projects in the healthcare and life sciences sector but don't know where to look for them.

These events, which are moving into their second edition this year, were created out of the need to pair scientific research of excellence with expertise in business development. The first edition, held in 2015, brought together 60 projects and executives to hold more than 200 meetings. Of these, 6 teams have reached some sort of agreement or collaboration. One of these teams is the one comprised of Dr Ruth M. Risueño and Dr Enrique Llaudet, who became CEO of Leukos Biotech, a biopharmaceutical spin-off of the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (IJC). We asked them about their experience at the first Health & Bio Team Dating.

What did you get out of participating in this speed dating event?

R. S: We found a CEO for the company.
E. L: I found an exciting, rewarding new job.
 

What stage is your business project at now?

R. S: We’re finishing preclinical development of a new class of drugs to treat acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) in patients deemed not apt, meaning individuals over the age of 60 with a general state of health that makes it impossible for them to undergo a bone-marrow transplant and/or intensive chemotherapy. We aim to start a phase II clinical trial with AML patients in mid-2017. If the results are as good as we expect, we want to license the project to a large pharmaceutical corporation within three years so the treatment can reach patients as quickly as possible.

E. L: We’ve raised public and private funding that will allow us to turn our technology into a commercial product. Last October we announced a €3.5 million round of investment led by Inveready.
 

Creating a science/business tandem has been key to:

R. S: Attracting the funding needed for clinical development.
E. L: Identifying the project's strengths and weaknesses and planning accordingly.
 

What advice would you give those participating in the second edition?
R. S: The most important thing isn't that the manager understands all the details of your science, but that they can see and in-demand application.

E. L: Health & Bio Team Dating is an original format that is highly necessary, facilitating an aspect that may not have been taken into an account enough, which is identifying and attracting human capital. Don't just look at the project or idea, the personal connection is also very important.