With plans for three business models, the founder of a new biopharma research and development company in Albany expects to make a big impact in the industry.
Xing Che created an AI-enabled drug discovery company, YDS Pharmatech, during the pandemic. It’s now based in the Innovate 518 startup incubator at the new ETEC building on the University at Albany campus.
YDS Pharmatech is part of the burgeoning industry of TechBio – not to be mistaken for BioTech – which focuses on digitizing biologics developments.
YDS has developed the software platform MERES, which uses a biological simulation to predict how pharmaceutical molecules would perform in the body. The clients in the first YDS business model are drug discovery companies and academic research labs.
Traditionally, drug discovery companies basically use trial and error to find new medicines, Che said. They would typically experiment with roughly 7,000 compounds for a single project, which can be very expensive.
“It’s like navigating a ship with gut feelings, and without very sophisticated navigation technology,” Che said.
Using the information determined by the MERES software, drug discovery companies can eliminate most of those 7,000 options, only having to test about 100 options in a real lab. She says that can help pharma and biotech companies reduce drug discovery costs by at least 20% while completing the work 10 times faster and more successfully.
“We really want to help empower those drug discovery companies to develop therapeutics that can extend the people's healthy lifespan by more than 10 years," Che said.
Che landed her first contract just a few months after starting the company in the early days of the pandemic. The startup is now working on nine drug pipelines for five companies and academic institutions. She has a goal of reaching 45 contracts in the next several years.
“I think we are on the track,” she said.
The company is ready for more clients and has started an ad campaign with industry publications. She recently attended a trade convention and received multiple pilot offers including from big pharma companies, she said, which the team will pursue this fall.
She plans to expand the team, particularly with people to strengthen the AI software.
“If we develop that method, we’ll really solve a lot of challenging problems,” she said.
In addition to the R&D service, Che expects to license discoveries made in conjunction with research universities to pharmaceutical companies that want to develop medicines with those discoveries.
Che is also expanding the business into the design of enzymes, a biological substance that speeds up chemical reactions. Long term, the plan is to spin out additional startups that bring to market certain discoveries in that area, which could cover a wide range of industries. YDS could discover enzymes to break down plastics or increase efficiency of next-generation biopharmaceuticals.
The founder has grown the advisory board and management team with some big industry names. One is Dr. James Kuo, co-founder and former CEO of TRYP Therapeutics (CSE: TRYP) (OTCQB: TRYPF) and board chair of ImmunoPrecise Antibodies (NASDAQ: IPA) (TSXV: IPA).
Che has a Ph.D. in computation and theoretical chemistry from Peking University in Beijing.
