The lead generation company Sprint Bioscience brings in venture capital from Första Entreprenörsfonden and Almi Invest for their development of lead compounds for research projects within the pharmaceutical industry.
Sprint Bioscience is a provider of innovative and patentable solutions for the global pharmaceutical industry, having established a technology platform for early drug discovery. Sprint uses this platform to run internal drug discovery projects and to conduct contract research. The company, founded in 2009 by Prof. Pär Nordlund and Dr. Anders Åberg, has both large and small pharmaceutical companies as customers.
The current trend in the pharmaceutical industry is moving towards outsourcing, where pharma companies reduce the number of researchers and instead purchase resources from other companies, both in the form of contract research and in-licensing of projects.“Within our business model, we offer services, as well as research projects from our internal oncology portfolio” says Anders Åberg, CEO of Sprint Bioscience.
The model also comprises an early point of commercialization. The excellence of the company resides within the earliest phases of drug discovery. The quality in these steps is crucial for the upcoming development of the drug. “A large degree of the attrition in the pharma industry’s research portfolio is due to poor quality of the chemical substances that enters the projects” Dr Åberg says. Sprint Bioscience provide high-quality lead compounds for research projects within the pharmaceutical industry and is one of a handful of companies that focus only on early stages of the drug development process” Dr Åberg says. Through this business model Sprint has the opportunity to early on get return on the research investment.
Sprint Bioscience uses fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) to identify and optimize lead compounds. FBDD is a method strongly on the rise in the industry, providing an alternative to the currently dominant method of high-throughput screening. FBDD has the potential to deliver lead compounds having inherent properties that make them suitable as candidates for future drugs.
Sprint Bioscience rapid success among leading pharmaceutical companies has been based on their expertise in protein production and structure-based drug discovery. “We’ve received extremely positive feedback from customers. In particular they highlight the facts that Sprint Bioscience is very professional in the deal process, have an in-depth knowledge of the field, and are fast and cost-efficient” says Anna Söderholm, Investment Manager at Almi Invest.
“Sprint Bioscience is a company with highly motivated and skilled entrepreneurs. The team is optimized for current and future tasks. They have comprehensive experience of drug development, particularly in the lead generation phase” says Rune Nordlander, partner at Första Entreprenörsfonden. “The team members have held leading positions as project managers and team leaders within drug discovery in the Swedish pharmaceutical industry, thus building a broad contact-network. They have all been involved in similar collaborations as customers and, thereby, have acquired a good understanding of customer needs and expectations” Rune adds.
About Första Entreprenörsfonden
Första Entreprenörsfonden generates high returns through a unique approach in which we identify, develop, and invest in already successful entrepreneurs. Since the fund was established in 2005, we have evaluated more than 500 companies and invested in 13 entrepreneurial companies in three annual funds in 2007, 2009 and 2010. Each investment has a sharp focus on the entrepreneur combined with the business opportunity at hand. Första Entreprenörsfonden firmly believes that a strong entrepreneur, working in a well-functioning team, is a recipe for a successful business.
About Almi Invest
Almi Invest creates unique opportunities for entrepreneurial growth companies to expand by investing capital and know-how in the risk capital market on a regional basis and in collaboration with other players. Almi Invest is organised into seven regional venture capital funds, and is owned by Almi Företagspartner AB in partnership with regional players.
More information:
Anders Åberg, founder and CEO, phone +46-(0)762-73 87 77, www.sprintbioscience.com
Rune Nordlander, Partner, Första Entreprenörsfonden, phone+46-(0)733-89 68 27, www.forstaentreprenorsfonden.se
Anna Söderholm, Investment Manager, Almi Invest, phone +46-(0)709-85 24 84, www.almiinvest.se
