9 minute read:
First Choice Bio dba QuickCells.com operates as a distributor of research material, comprising of healthy human donor primary cells, to the biotech, life science, pharmaceutical and precision medicine industries and academic and governmental research institutions:
What follows is a brief explanation that goes alongside the pitch deck as attached at the bottom:
Problem is 2-fold:
1:
Demand increase is approx. 8 % annually resulting in constant SHORTAGES
2:
Due to the increasing demand also for donor diversity too many samples now are NON-REPRESENTATIVE.
Those SUPPLY LIMITATIONS translate into COMPROMISES that force preclinical research to start off on the wrong foot, right from the moment go!
And 75% OF ALL PRECLINICAL FAILS REPRODUCIBILITY AND FAILS TRANSLATION INTO CLINICAL STAGE 1
This CRISIS, also known as the valley of death for preclinical research, equals some US$ 28 BILLION dollars in wasted resources, in preclinical research, in 2022, in the US alone!
Solution and Impact
If 75 % of all preclinical fails, one can question who is that to blame, but it is very obvious that it can not always be the researcher! So therefore:
1:
Because of the shortage in sample availability the focus MUST be on partnering with the PUBLIC.
There is no point in aiming for conscientious donors, the Red Cross knows all about that!
We will set up a collection center that pivots towards LMI, Low and Medium Income, communities and students to attract more donors as MONEY TALKS! Money and easy access to it.
2:
We will also pivot towards BIPOC, Black, Indigenous and People Of Color, communities for donor diversity.
Making more samples more useful towards reproducibility and translation!
Location is everything, and bringing our business to the people is important, as the industry is a total unknown with the general public.
For those reasons LMI in combination with BIPOC neighborhoods are ideal.
As the goal is: MORE donors for supply reliability and MORE ethnic diversity for more sample variety.
Our Impact:
Besides putting cash dollars in the hands of the under-represented, we’ll save the research industry conservatively 2 to 4+ Billion dollars annually. This may even be doubled or more with additional collection centers set up in biotech hubs around the country, within 10 years. That creates an impact of approximately 20%, or US$5 B.
Just imagine what that freed-up money can do for research!
This just in:
Applying Flow Cytometry (FC) screening to our samples, as an additional service, is being discussed. This will make us stand out from the competition for years to come;
We may have access to a 7 sample at-a-time Flow Cytometry system (prototype).
Product
As mentioned, we sell cells, primary cells for preclinical research.
Primary cells are whole blood and bone marrow and everything derived from those, like plasma, serum as well as individual cells, separated from the initial raw product.
Donations are on a voluntarily basis, are fully consented and released.
As an additional service:
Our own specialized and customized courier service for global deliveries of fresh material, which has a very limited shelf-life of less than 36 hours.
Demand shortages are global, we can deliver anywhere in the world within 24 hours / leaving FEDEX, UPS, DHL AND WORLD COURIER eat our dust, EVERY TIME!
Ask us for concrete examples.
Opportunity
1:
We operate in a demand driven market, with an annual increase of approximately 8 %, meaning that the market doubles in size within 9 yrs!
2:
Demand is diversifying , something our competition is unable to respond to.
3:
AllCells, our ex employer, and by far the largest producer in the SF Bay Area, has gone clinical, leaving the Bay Area preclinical research scramble for REASONABLY PRICED research material.
Business Model
B2B only!
Average profit margin is 70+ % with the highest margins on separated cells and bone marrow products.
So far our orders range from a few hundred dollars to almost $100,000.00, and if it wasn’t for unreliable and inconsistent supply that would have only been the beginning!
We have 500+K in sales, this could have been over 1.25M with the correct, reliable supply!
Market
Primary cells are the closest mimic of in vivo / living organism.
More and more bans are implemented on animal testing.
Primary cells are therefore becoming the most important as well as most applicable, and ethically accepted source for preclinical research.
We operate in an Organic Growth market, with demand constantly overshadowing supply.
The 5 P's of the Go To Market Strategy
Product and Price:
A quality product, not necessarily manufactured with clinical but preclinical applications in mind, deliverable at reasonable, yet certainly not the lowest prices in the country.
Value Proposition:
Focus on the Customer by pivoting towards the donors: Insatiable demand for more product AND for more sample diversity.
Promotions:
Besides outside sales-people, SEO and Local SEO, Email and Social Media Marketing, but also WORD of MOUTH. It’s a relatively small industry.
Place:
For Fresh = SF Bay Area / some nat’l, even int’l /
For Frozen = US and global
Traction CUSTOMERS and Sales
We have TRACTION and we have SALES but we are LACKING RELIABLE SUPPLY. This has costs us at least 500 to 750K in potential sales...
Therefore we stopped distributing fresh and frozen healthy human donor material, we keep a low profile to avoid further damage to our reputation and we are focusing on getting funding to set up our own healthy human donor collection center.
This change from the DISTRIBUTION model to one of MANUFACTERING is now our goal.
75 To 80 % of our demand is for healthy human donor material.
And 70+ % of our products already go to cancer research.
Therefore our recent and EXCLUSIVE AGREEMENT with the UMASS biorepository for cancerous / diseased human donor material is a perfect extension to what will be our self manufactured (collected and processed when required) healthy human donor research products.
Amongst the approx. 150 Customers we have as distributors are Gilead, Ultragenix Pharmaceuticals, Regeneron, UCSF, Beckman Coulter, Cureline, BOSTON CHILDRENS Hospital / CRISPR THERAPEUTICS / NSU university / STANFORD university and VWR.
Competition
Where our competitors have always been aiming for students because young people in general have the healthiest primary cells, since the pandemic they have realized to be vulnerable as students are not necessarily on campus year round...
AllCells (turnover 21 M for 2021) is by far the biggest competitor and is our ex employer.
Recently they have been acquired by Discovery Life Sciences (10+X rumor has it).
However, AllCells went clinical, and that left Bay Area preclinical research scramble for reasonably priced product.
AllCells is located in an industrial area, very isolated from any residential area.
PPA Berkeley, since BioIVT took it over in 2019, is now called BSC. They have been our supplier, so we know them too inside out!
Canventa, an AllCells spin-off, is 100 % StemCell Technology owned and oriented.
Both these other competitors are located in a High Income area, and are focused on university students.
(We know from experience that high income neighborhood people do not get out of the house to donate blood or bone marrow, no matter how much you compensate!)
Funding
To better guarantee reproducibility and translation into clinical stage 1 we are now seeking a seed round of US$ 1 Million.
Funds breakdown:
Equipment 35% / Operating expenses 50% / Real Estate 10% / Storage & Inventory 5%.
Milestones:
Start selling cancerous and diseased material for preclinical research purposes in Q1, 2023
Close Seed Round by end of Q1, 2023
Bring the new collection center online in Q3, 2023
Sales year 1: 1.25 M
Sales year 2: 3.50 M
Sales year 3: 6.75 M