Print

Mail

wiki links

Vita Genomics hopes for biotech stardom

Friday, Jul 13, 2001, Page 18

Ellson Chen, president of Vita Genomics Inc discusses plans to make the company into a biotech powerhouse. PHOTO: CRYSTAL CHIANG, TAIPEI TIMES

Taipei Times: Before moving back to Taiwan to set-up Vita Genomics (賽亞基因科技), you were involved in sequencing the human genetic code as the principle scientist at Celera. Could you give our readers a little background about that?

Ellson Chen (陳奕雄): Celera Genomics, at that time was part of PE Corp (hereafter known by its new name, Applera). Applera in 1998 was mainly a manufacturer of instruments, actually that was the main work in my lab. I ran a lab of about 35 people. We developed a new sequencer ... which saved a lot of labor and time [in gene sequencing].

So, when they were talking about how to market this new instrument, Applera decided to form Celera. They decided that the best way, and I think it was proven right, was not to sell this instrument to the Human Genome Consortium, the best way is to do it yourself.

Applera got to sell over 1,000 units of that machine, for US$300,000 apiece. So a quick calculation will show you that 1,000 units at US$300,000 each, that gets you US$300 million dollars. So they invest US$300 million to start Celera and make it back in the first year just by selling to the Human Genome Project. So I thought that was a very clever marketing scheme ... and the business model is simply this: During a gold rush, there will be lots of people hunting for gold, but the ones selling the tools are always going to do well.

So Applera's business model was to decide basically to have two wings, one is Applied Biosystems which sells tools, and the other is Celera, that sells information. Anyone wanting to dig for gold is going to need both. So, it was a very interesting business model, it has worked out quite well.

TT: When news of your venture started to come out, it sounded like Celera Genomics would be a major shareholder in what would be called Celera Asia, not Vita Genomics. This has changed drastically. The company has a small stake in Vita now. Why the change?

Chen: Actually, Celera Asia was our code name when I was still with Celera. The initial idea when I was on the management team at Celera was we never actually addressed the needs of Asian countries. Later on, Celera also had some discussions with Japan.

So Celera Asia was really just a code name within Celera. In the beginning, Celera wanted to fund the whole project and make this a fully owned subsidiary of Celera.

We had a counter argument based on my previous visits. I visited Asia about 20 times over a three year period, including China, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and various other places. Eventually, our conclusion was that you need local input for a program of this magnitude to work. So, if it's a subsidiary, it will be difficult to do these things.

So, when a company is wholly owned by the US, it is difficult to be received well by local people, especially local officers. So, it's difficult to get cooperation, particularly with biotech, due to the changes going on. So, we were saying you need local input. The best way to get local input is when you have local capital.

But Applera never actually had a custom of joining new ventures with anyone else. It's a company that either wholly owns or simply works together and doesn't own anything. So, eventually we came to the conclusion that it would be better to be a company all its own so then I decided at that time -- and agreed with management of Celera -- that I should jump out. In the long run it would be better for everyone.

So if you notice, our funding is basically gathered from all local industries, but Celera is our strategic partner. They will provide databases and we will share certain rights with them, so we will get all the keys for discoveries that we make here.

So, the goal is really not to localize this company but to bring the results out of Taiwan.

TT: So did you come to Taiwan to set up Vita Genomics to essentially dig for gold, and what is your main focus?

Chen: Yes, you can say that we're going after the gold. We're going after the niche that I believe was not being filled by any of the companies in the Western world.

In trying to find or discover the value -- post human genome sequencing -- of course what you do is gene discovery. Of course, we now know there are about 35,000 genes. Almost 5,000 single genes that we know of are associated with particular diseases. But today, only about 500 are well studied. So there is still a lot of room for disease causes to be discovered and [to] therefore lead to the diagnosis and cure of those diseases.

Now, traditional studies in the Western world usually focus on diseases prevalent on that side of the world. That, typically, can be different from what is happening here. [For example], in the southern part of Taiwan they have a type of oral cancer that is quite prevalent but you don't see that problem in the rest of the world. So therefore there are some local niches that one can go after.

So, we're using all Western technologies, like Celera's database. I'm recruiting returnees from the United States. We're basically trying to use top-notch technology and database information and try to go after important diseases that prevail in Asian countries, basically on this side of the world.

TT: What diseases will you be focusing on and what products do you think will come from Vita Genomics first?

Chen: The first could be Hepatitis and a number of other diseases listed on our company brochure. At this time, we haven't yet prioritized our targets yet. It will depend on how good our patient samples are and how close they are from the potential product line.

We are focusing on eight or nine different disease targets and we haven't yet assigned priorities to any particular one -- we'll do that later this year. We haven't even finished building our labs, so we haven't really had a chance to start gathering original data and once we have some preliminary results we will have a scientific advisory board come in and help us decide where we should place ourselves.

TT: Could you give a short timeline of how you see things progressing for your company? You said in October, your Taipei office will open ...

Chen: Yes, so our Tainan Science Park lab facilities should be up sometime in mid to late August. Taipei will be two months behind. So, around the late October time frame our office will open in the Taipei Science Park.

Our target this year is to grow to about 40 people and right now we are only a dozen, including two in California. Then next year, we expect to be about 100 people. We have a number of projects under evaluation at this moment.

We've been talking virtually to about a dozen -- and in the future maybe more -- institutes in Taiwan. That includes both academia and industrial labs. So we want to try to set up as much collaboration as we can and have partners in each particular area.
This story has been viewed 2301 times.