Home Viewpoints Entrepreneurship It’s all in the Genes... Friday, 21 November 2008
             
It’s all in the Genes... PDF Print E-mail
Written by Amit Bhagria   
Saturday, 10 May 2008 07:30
Every individual is different and needs customised treatment, especially when it comes to cancer. Acton Biotec does genetic analysis and helps doctors choose the most suitable drug.

STARTING up a business in a highly contested field can be challenging. Many entrepreneurs are tempted to copy other businesses with the hope that their venture would manage to do better than the next fellow’s. Only a few have the courage to enter a crowded battlefield with a completely unique offering and change the rules of the game through innovation. One such firm is Acton Biotech (India), competing with thousands of diagnostic laboratories in the country, but making a singular proposition that has made prescribing doctors sit up and take notice.


It would be shocking, but not far from the truth, to know that there had been sick people who died because of inadequate diagnosis and wrongly targeted treatment. Dreaded diseases like cancer call for extreme treatments before which the body could wilt and collapse. So, it is essential to know exactly how much a patient could take before a process such as chemotherapy could be administered.

Modern research has shown that not everyone reacts to medicines the same way. There are people who metabolise the drugs too soon or too late, leading to complications. So, not only the dosage and frequency, even the nature of treatment must be customised to the extent possible.
It was with this objective Sandeep Saxena founded Acton Biotech. His laboratory in Pune and a network of sample collection centres help doctors leverage the power of gene analysis to design chemotherapy and related treatments for cancer patients. The 32-year-old biotechnologist believes a better understanding and use of human genetics could revolutionise the diagnostics business and alter forever the one-size-fits-all prescription that the medical world is used to while treating ailments.

“Something as harmless as a tablespoon of ghee can have varied effects on different people. Some may easily digest it, while for others, their system may not be equipped enough to do so, and thus it may prove harmful. Some may also may be allergic to it. Therefore, what’s good or bad for one’s body may not be so for others.”

Sandeep Saxena


Founder and CEO, Acton Biotech


Saxena says he got a close view of human genome sequencing while doing research at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). He immediately started searching for commercially viable ideas that would be based on gene research. He figured it would be a business not many competitors can enter, given its highly technical nature. The cost of gene analysis itself, however, is coming down, he said. This means that a business around gene analysis would be increasingly profitable even if prices stayed the same. “Mumbai witnesses the maximum number of cancer patients in the country. India has two million cancer patients. Around 500,000 are added each year. More than 20% can afford the treatment and the number is increasing,” said Mr Saxena.

Initial funds for Acton, which started in June this year, came in from angel investors. Saxena now has a team including a cancer specialist and biotechnologists. They have spend the past few months selling the concept hard to doctors across the country and business has started trickling in. “I knew that it would not be easy to get a market but I am here for a long term. I am sure in a few years, gene analysis will become a common practice and then I will have the beginner’s advantage,” Mr Saxena asserted.

Asian Institute of Oncology in Mumbai is one of the institutions using Acton’s services. “So far, our practice was based on the assumption that all patients will respond to a drug in a similar manner,” Dr Anupama Borker, paediatric oncologist at the hospital, said. “But some patients would respond very differently from others. Now with these tests, we can stratify patients and tailor the drug according to so that it has maximum benefit and least side effects. We are also testing for the aggressive leukaemia and tumour load. If both these are high, the patient gets a stronger dose, as compared to a patient with a less aggressive leukaemia and low tumour load.”

Typically, a hospital refers a cancer patient to the nearest collection centre where a blood sample is collected. The genetic properties of the sample are analysed at Acton’s Pune lab. “Drugs for treatment of serious diseases like cancer are needed to be washed out of the body and if the patient lacks the required enzymes to wash it away, then it will start accumulating inside the body and prove counter-productive. Therefore, this is exactly why a simple gene test is so important as you can then be give drugs according to the enzymes you have in your system,” Mr Saxena said.

There are some global players in the field such as Mayo Clinic, Prometheus Lab and Quest Diagnostics, none of them is present in India, according to Saxena. Because of the novelty here, “even convincing my team that this project will work was quite difficult. But, now they are as confident about my business as I am,” he said.

“My business is a mix of biotechnology, medicine, pathology and marketing, and I am happy that I am able to maintain the correct balance between each of them. I want to expand it further and get into other major diseases like TB or AIDS. I am confident that very soon, everyone will be able to afford gene therapy and it will be done to cure even the most common diseases like common cold,” Mr Saxena said.


Reference:
Mahul Brahma

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