“Wouldn’t it be great if we could create drugs with the efficacy of a biologic, but at a price that people could afford?” – Alex Batchelor, CEO, Orbit Discovery
Arthritis is a chronic condition which causes pain and inflammation in the joints of over 10 million people in the UK. Over the last decade, there have been lots of advances in treatments, though at £20k a year per patient, these are not widely prescribed. Biologic drugs such as Enbrel and Humira are issued only as a last resort, meaning millions struggle on for years with less effective forms of treatment. Orbit Discovery is a recent Oxford University spin-out which aims to make biologic drugs for a range of chronic diseases available to the mass market. We spoke with CEO Alex Batchelor on his vision for Orbit, the challenge of bringing scientists and investors together, and his talent for long-distance running.
The moment that ignited the spark in me was…
I’ve been supplying things; products, services or manufacturing to the pharmaceutical industry, for the last 20 years. In that time there’s been a big rise in the use of biologic molecules – it’s a huge development, though I’m not sure how familiar you are with drugs! Aside from cancer, one of the big uses is to treat people with arthritis. They go through years of being prescribed fairly ineffective drugs and their pain just goes on and on. Newer biologic drugs, such as Enbrel and Humira, are much more targeted which in many cases cause a huge improvement in their prognosis. These drugs are very effective in reducing inflammation and it makes people much more comfortable. For a lot of people, they are prescribed these drugs much too late, after the structural damage to their joints has already been done. This means that their symptoms can be treated but there will still be leftover, lasting damage to their joints.
As biologics have been developed – they bring with them an enormous amount of hope and expectation for patients, though disappointingly, they are still outrageously expensive. As a result, it takes a long time for an arthritis patient to be given biologics, because it’s so expensive to put a patient with a chronic illness on a drug that costs £20k a year to prescribe. The world cannot afford it.
I just thought, shouldn’t we be able to come up with drugs that had the efficacy of biologics, but at a cost that people could afford. So you could treat large patient populations with something that worked and was accessible. It is ridiculous that there are so many great drugs that people could take, but people can’t pay for them. I wanted to create a company that can develop drugs that can be manufactured, cheaper. With Orbit there’s a technology that potentially enables that – which is why I’m so enthusiastic, so passionate and so determined that we could change the world.
I got my idea off the ground by…
I began speaking to tech transfer offices, looking for technology. In previous roles I had lots of experience in looking for new technology and new licenses, so I basically went through the same process. With Orbit I found the best of both worlds – the technology to do what I needed to do, and the academics to support it. There are a lot of academics who are very taken with the idea of a spin-out company, but the primary reason that they want to do it is so that they can tell their friends that they have a company! I wanted to find people that were really engaged and wanted to commit to Orbit’s vision. In our team at Oxford, I’ve now got that combination. Professors Graham Ogg and Terry Rabbitts are incredibly engaged with the vision, and we’ve got that enabling technology. I searched around for at least 2 years before I found them, but once I found them – I realised we could do something special here.
The toughest challenge I’ve faced is…
The toughest challenge was raising money to get the business off the ground. It’s difficult to raise money on an idea – we had to find alignment between our vision and what we wanted to do vs. what the investors wanted to see. Over the course of the year, we shaped our vision into something that was both what we wanted to do and something that was investable.
Ahead of us now, the biggest challenge is to prove ourselves in the first year or two – demonstrating that the technology that shows so much promise, actually does. That’s what drives us now.
Our biggest success has been…
Arguably the biggest success so far has been the quality of the Scientific advisory team that we put together. We got some really big hitters, and our founders did a great job pulling them together – in terms of lining us up for future success, we now have some really good advisors who totally get what we want to do.
I’m very good at…
I’m good at running a very long way! Must be something to do with incredible focus and endurance! But seriously in a business context – it means I can be relentless. I think I’m good at focusing on what the long-term goals are, and balancing that with what needs to be done right now. A lot of people tend to focus on the long term – and then drift around in the present. I’m quite good at having defined the vision, breaking it out into separate projects and asking what is the most important thing to do right now?
The type of person I look to recruit into my organisation is…
People with a bit of passion – and those who come across as wanting to demonstrate something and to prove themselves. Our first two scientists in the lab fit that mould very well.
The part of my day I most look forward to is…
At the moment, my whole day is good and I look forward to it; everything is moving quickly and there is plenty to do. Pieces are coming together and it is quite an interesting place to be. Yesterday afternoon we had everyone sat in a room talking about the Science, which I assure you was very exciting! The day before I was at a drug company with quite a lot of different people, talking about our platform and how we will transform Orbit into a commercial discovery company, as oppose to an academic one. It’s very varied and all good fun!
If I could give my 18-year old self one piece of advice, it would be…
Don’t listen to anybody who says it can’t be done. People who seem very wise, and say ‘just get a job because it pays well’ – ignore them.
Outside of work I can be found…
Walking the dog, running in the hills, watching my kids do sport and generally doing things that take me outside.
My philosophy on life is…
Generally, I think it’s important to do something you really want to do. I find it very disappointing when people spend big chunks of time doing things that they don’t enjoy. It’s such a waste.
If I was asking the questions, I would want to know…
I always want to know what question I should have asked! That’s my closing question of everybody. I like to know why they are doing what they are doing – why is it important to them? People who want to set up companies are generally driven by something. I want to know what that driver is.
What I like about working with Ignition Law…
Everything! I like the fact that Ignition is positioned towards start-up companies. Many law firms have ‘start-ups’ as a bit on the side. There’s an urgency to start-ups that doesn’t necessarily exist in corporates. Ignition is very start-up focused and that drives a similarity between us. Rather than me trying to push and drag my lawyer to meet my timescales – Ignition Law’s behaviour mirrors mine, which is great.
