Adam Utley knew in a broad way that his Buffalo-based biotech firm had important technology in the emerging field of immunotherapy.
After more than a half-year’s worth of reflection and analysis, he knows exactly what kind of customer he's targeting first.
Immunaeon is preparing to launch a full-scale marketing campaign into that first targeted market: adults who have been diagnosed with a pre-cancerous condition that leads to multiple myeloma.
Through blood draws, Immunaeon stores a person’s healthy immune cells for a future day when they’re needed. It’s an important piece of the supply chain developing around immunotherapy, a hot subject in the international biotech field that harnesses a person’s own immune system to fight diseases.
The problem is that people are often very ill when they’re diagnosed. Immunaeon can introduce cells from when the person was healthier, Utley said.
“Storing cells is essentially an insurance policy that if you do develop cancer, and especially the kind of cancer that can be treated with immunotherapy, they have healthy immune soldiers to fight the battle,” Utley said.
Immunaeon won the University at Buffalo’s Panasci entrepreneurship competition in 2020, and it partners with both Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and the University at Buffalo.
The company was among the inaugural cohort of UB’s Cultivator startups program, which involves deep market research. Immunaeon was recently accepted into phase two of the program, which involves a $100,000 seed investment from UB’s Innovation Seed Fund.
Through that process, the company decided to hone its focus on adults who are at risk of multiple myeloma.
“These are people with a very high level of anxiety,” he said. “They are often women who are educated and at the head of their families. They have a higher chance of developing cancer, and they do a lot of personal research.”
At the same time, a diagnosis leaves them with little advice other than “wait and see.” Utley said Roswell researchers published a paper in 2020 that showed people at risk of multiple myeloma have as much anxiety as those who’ve actually been diagnosed with it.
“What they really want is to do something,” he said. “We can provide them some peace of mind.”
The initial market alone is a large one — about 3% of all U.S. adults older than 50. Utley said the plan is to expand into other blood cancers such as lymphoma, and as the company gains steam to target a broader cross-section of potential customers.
Immunaeon is opening up an operation in North Carolina and exploring other locations in the East Coast, as well.
“The $100,000 from UB allows us to put the pedal to the metal and really ramp up our marketing,” he said. “We’ve spent time defining who our customer is. Now we have the money to reach them.”
