An up­start jumps al­most overnight from pre­clin­i­cal to PhI with a $35M Take­da deal and a buy­out op­tion

Here’s a non­tra­di­tion­al way to set up a biotech com­pa­ny and shoot straight at a buy­out.

About six years ago, In­grid Swan­son Pultz ad­vised a group of stu­dents at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton who took on the chal­lenge of us­ing 3D struc­ture pro­tein de­sign tech to de­vel­op a new ther­a­py for celi­ac dis­ease, marked by a se­vere re­ac­tion to gluten.

Start­ing out with an en­zyme that could with­stand the harsh, acidic en­vi­ron­ment of the stom­ach, they en­gi­neered it specif­i­cal­ly to go af­ter frag­ments of gluten that trig­ger a gut re­ac­tion. And they did well, win­ning a pres­ti­gious com­pe­ti­tion.

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