Today, Juvabis, Inura Medical, SunRegen Healthcare, and Saverna Therapeutics have pitched their ventures at the HEMEX incubator to an online group of renowned international investors.
HEMEX frequently holds pitch events, where selected start-ups get the opportunity to pitch in front of potential investors. Since June, we have been organizing online Pitch Events to ensure safety for all participants. The focus of this morning’s pitch session was for start-ups seeking to revolutionize the fields of antimicrobial resistance, women’s health, neurodegeneration, and autoimmune diseases.
Today’s event kicked off with the start-up Juvabis AG. Sven Hobbie and Marc Creus, CEO and Head of BD at Juvabis respectively, presented their product pipeline which focuses on antimicrobial therapeutic drugs. They have developed a strategic opportunity to solve the problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Their program is an antibiotic-combination therapy for the treatment of drug-resistant infections in patients with limited treatment options. “We have an extremely robust base, concrete clinical data, and have a solid project which we are ready to push forward with”, Marc Creus tells Hemex after the presentation. “We were busy delivering, we have completed Phase I and now we are ready to start Phase II” added Sven Hobbie. Juvabis aims to develop innovative formulations that can be used to treat chronic, rare, and orphan diseases.
The second start-up pitching at our event was Inura Medical AG. Rafiq Hussain and Vanja Ivancevic, CEO and COO of Inura respectively, presented their innovative idea. Inura has developed an innovative patented urethral suppository for women, using an existing, approved drug with a well-known safety profile. It offers rescue therapy for a highly prevalent and disabling health disorder: overactive bladder syndrome (OAB). “In all my years working as a physician I have seen many women who are suffering from this disease, but the current treatment options do not work for everybody”, Rafiq Hussain tells Hemex, “patients would not hesitate to test another treatment, and we don’t want to give them another pill, so we are offering them a solution with a novel administration route that actually works” adds Vanja. This product facilitates the effective penetration of drugs through the urethral mucosal lining preventing the symptoms of this disease and reducing side effects.
The third start-up pitching was Sunregen Healthcare AG. Mark Freedman, CEO of SunRegen, presented their innovative treatments for retinitis pigmentosa, a rare ophthalmological neurodegenerative disease. SunRegen has a potent, broad-acting, neuroprotective, neuro-rescuing small molecule that can be dosed orally and crosses the blood-brain barrier. Raw data proves that the compound plays a role in proteostasis and anti-apoptotic pathways, which provides additional rationale for its ability to protect and rescue a whole range of neurological stresses. “As a start-up, we need to find the right partner to help us go to the next stage” Mark explains to Hemex after his presentation, “and if we end up being right, this will make a huge impact and change the lives of people suffering from these neurodegenerative diseases.”
Last but not least, Saverna Therapeutics AG closed our Biotech/Pharma Pitch Event. Kamal Azzaoui, CEO of Saverna Therapeutics, presented their project which focuses on autoimmune diseases. Saverna uses integrated fragment-based screening (FBS) by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) in-silico machine learning (ML), and cellular assays for drug discovery. The start-up has discovered a molecule that has shown cellular and in vivo activity, which would be a great candidate for Lupus disease. “We have the first molecule that is targeting the modulators of microRNA and we are proving that this platform works, which has huge potential to revolutionize drug discovery” explains Kamal to the Hemex team after his presentation.
Many thanks to Marc, Sven, Rafiq, Vanja, Mark, and Kamal for introducing us to their unique ideas in the fields of antimicrobial resistance, women’s health, neurodegeneration, and autoimmune diseases. We wish you good luck with your projects!
Are you interested in becoming an early-stage investor in one of these promising start-ups? Would you like to receive a personalized invitation to one of our next sessions?
Or are you interested in learning about how to create a great pitch deck that excites potential investors about your idea?
Then you are in the right place! Contact our start-up coach Franziska Stemmler for more information.
About HEMEX
HEMEX AG is a privately-owned Swiss investment and consulting company headquartered close to the Basel global life sciences hub. Its primary focus is to bring innovative drugs, medical devices, and in–vitro diagnostics to the market. HEMEX specializes in supporting early-stage start-ups, offering tailored solutions to accelerate projects into successful and sustainable businesses. Additionally, HEMEX helps and supports start-ups to find non-dilutive and dilutive funding. More at HEMEX