Zika Vaccines, Patents, and Startups

It is rare to hear any mention on the daily news about intellectual property (IP) in general, and more specifically, patents.

It was interesting, therefore, to see Peter Laing, the CEO of small British startup company, Excivion, last week on the BBC Business Live program (31 August 2016, around 16 minutes into the program). Peter’s insights into running his company, the strategy that he is using to develop his product, and how he is competing against the huge pharmaceutical companies is fascinating.

Zika Vaccine

One of Peter’s first comments in answer to Ben Bland’s opening question about how to compete against the giant pharma companies in developing his own Zika Virus vaccine was: ‘It’s all about insight and intellectual property.’ Peter continued, ‘If you have a good idea, and you’re able to get a granted patent on that idea, and then develop that as a product, then you can fend off hostile takeover bids from larger companies. So, the basis of the company is its intellectual property.’

The vaccine that Peter and his company is developing is not only to protect against the Zika Virus epidemic, but will also be applicable to Zika’s close cousin, Dengue (pronounced ‘dengi’) which is responsible for the more historically well-known Dengue Fever causing debilitating joint pain and fever.

Peter’s background is immunology, and he had the opportunity to develop a Zika vaccine product using the different ideas that he had based on his knowledge of Zika and Dengue. Peter therefore filed his patent application to his novel vaccine idea.

Funding at the right time

Luck and timing certainly pays a part. Peter’s insight into the heightened media interest in solving the Zika Virus problem due to the recent high-profile Rio Olympics and the prevalence of Zika in Brazil is interesting, stating that ‘many companies are in a race to stop it’. This resulted in Peter’s company, Excivion, which was started in 2012, receiving greater interest and consequently funding from countries battling the Zika Virus and non-Governmental philanthropic organisations.

An interesting question put to Peter by Sally Bundock was: What if Excivion doesn’t win the race? In other words, what happens to Excivion and all the hard work, time and money, if one of the giant pharma companies beats them to the market? The answer, which is true in almost every market, is: ‘There is room for multiple products in the field. Just look at the multiple vaccines available for treating other diseases. However, once someone comes up with a vaccine for treating both diseases together (Zika and Dengue) instead of just one, it will trump these earlier vaccine products’.

Vaccines typically take 10 to 15 years to develop, since human safety is of paramount importance. However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has approved a fast track process for vaccines dealing with Zika, and Peter’s company is hoping that a marketable product will be available in 7 years or less. This is still a long time, but goes to show the long term commitment and perseverance needed to achieve success – overnight success is rare.

Startup mentality

Peter finishes the interview by giving a brief insight into the way that he is running his company. Peter and his wife are the two directors, and all the scientific development work is outsourced to the best specialists all over the world, naming India, the USA, Europe and the UK in particular. This greatly reduces the overheads of maintaining and operating a workforce and associated infrastructure, and allows Peter to ‘pick and choose the best talents to achieve the objectives’. It is a way a lot of start-up companies begin, Peter moots, and we aspire to have our own people and labs.

Will Excivion be bought by a big pharma company? Peter hopes not. He would rather licence the technology (to generate an income), thereby allowing Excivion to fund the development of new products.

A brief few minutes, but a great insight into a strategy to start a business, compete with the giants in the industry using patents to defend your territory along with outsourcing technical specialisms, and the longer term plan to produce a sustainable business by reinvesting patent-licence revenue. We do wish Excivion all the very best of luck for the future.