Immunoprofiling for Advanced Biomarker Discovery

Sengenics at a glance

Sengenics is a proteomics company with a unique technology used to produce full-length, correctly folded, and functional proteins. The technology is leveraged to support pharma and academic research to advance precision medicine through an increased understanding of the autoimmune response in humans. Sengenics is currently focused on measurement of autoantibodies for applications in autoimmune diseases, oncology, neurological conditions, and infectious disease. Customers include large pharma, research, and academic institutions, as well as charities and foundations engaged in funding cures.

Year acquired

2019

Sector

Life Science

Location

Singapore

Employees

50

Investment themes

Changing Demographics

Key developments in 2021

In 2021, Covid-19 continued to disrupt pipeline realization, through local lockdowns, customer Covid focus and unprecedented supply chain issues. Sengenics worked on the strategy and value creation initiatives to be launched in 2021, 2022, including the launch of the research tool services and kits. Key hires were made to strengthen core functions, including a full-time CFO, Global Head of Sales, Director of Marketing, USA and EU sales team and several operational hires. The company also took steps towards setting up a US lab.

Impact dimensions

The challenges we face

We currently suffer from ineffective medication due to limited understanding of the biology of diseases. The shift from the "one size fits all" approach to precision medicine is a colossal challenge for science. Development of autoantibody biomarker signatures enable improved understanding of human biology and can optimize the development of safer and higher efficacy drugs, hence enabling healthcare to become more personalized and for the right treatment to be delivered to the right patient at the appropriate time.

0%

of patients receive no benefit from treatment with the top 10 best-selling drugs in the world

0%

is the average share of GDP spent on healthcare in the OECD in 2018, with the USA at the highest level at 16.9%

What is the outcome?

Sengenics contributes to the understanding of human biology through its unique proteomics technology. Sengenics’ technology enables biological response research at high sensitivity and specificity, thereby contributing to the development of more targeted, efficient, and effective therapeutics, vaccines and diagnostics. Sengenics' technology is also a key enabler for personalized medicine.

Who are the stakeholders?

Sengenics' customers are primarily found in pharma and in academic centers, who are focused on drug discovery and understanding of biology in human disease. Sengenics’ technology can enable their direct customers to drive the future of precision medicine, with the aim of providing benefits to individual patients and health care systems at large.

How big is the effect, and does it last?

Sengenics currently has commercial and collaborative partnerships with several top pharmaceutical companies within applications of complementary and companion diagnostics for autoimmune and cancer immunotherapy drugs, with potential to enable more targeted and effective treatment (precision medicine). Sengenics also holds 28 patents, has been featured in over 31 publications and has completed nearly 200 research projects worldwide.

If Sengenics didn’t exist...

Sengenics' technology is truly unique, providing insights that drive biological research forward, hence making a great contribution to the field of precision medicine. If Sengenics did not exist, a vast majority of the research that it enables today would not be done or would require a lot more complexity and cost with less precise results.

Impact risk: what can go wrong?

Product quality and reproducibility are fundamentally important, so if Sengenics would be unable to deliver strong product quality, its customers would likely stop using its products.

SDG alignments

SDG 3

KPI reporting

Data points generated

2021:
+0%
9,4m
2020:
6,1m
2019:
7,6m

Accumulated no. of publications

2021:
+0%
31
2020:
23
2019:
17

Number of samples profiled

2021:
+0%
4 090
2020:
2 005
2019:
1 897