The work has been focused exclusively on two following theme: Technical and Operational Feasibility study, a Business Plan and Financial Feasibility study .
Technical and Operational Feasibility study
PeptiGelDesign hydrogels have been characterised to ascertain product requirement specifications for cell encapsulation and extrusion.
• Cell Encapsulation: Independently of the nature of PeptiGelDesign hydrogels and their pH pre-buffering with cell culture media, cell survival rate remains acceptable for cell culturing and bioprinting applications.
• Hydrogel Printability:
o A minimum shear thinning modulus (G’) is necessary to print the hydrogels with respect to the bioprinter used in this study. The hydrogel formulations must meet a 120 Pa threshold to print defined structure.
o The extrusion rate and fluid dynamics during the printing process has initially an impact on printed cell survival located on the edge of the constructs. This comment does not concern the bulk of the cell laden. Nevertheless, the cell population recovers after 72h.
• Demonstration: PeptiGelDesign hydrogels are suitable for 3D cell culture and bioprinting applications for the development of tissue models (breast cancer) and tissue engineering (bone)
From an Operational point of view, key activities/ partners and route to markets have been identified.
Key activities will be focused on R&D activities, Partnering with academics and KOLs. The company will also further its visibility and market credibility through important marketing/branding activities that will be supported by the constant company’s effort to meet regulatory approvals and product quality standards such as the CE mark. In terms of distribution channels, PeptiGelDesign will approach and supply its 3D bio-printing products to end users through direct sale, via bioprinter manufacturers and via life science distributors. Direct sale, although time consuming and may be least cost effective at first, it will present PeptiGelDesign with a major marketing opportunity to build customer relationship and credibility. Many academic researchers at leading universities are also KOLs in their fields. Therefore, it is important to build a community by getting leading researchers to acknowledge the benefits of PeptiGelDesign’s bioprinting products and especially getting them to publish academic articles using bioink by PeptiGelDesign. If successfully implemented, these activities will transition to wider acceptance by R&D directors at larger pharmaceutical companies who keep a close eye at the latest developments that happens in academia too. Partnering with bioprinter and biotechnology companies based on complementary product lines will be mutually beneficial as it offers wider selection of solutions to end users.
In order to reach to reach out to various customers in Europe, North America and advanced Asia, PeptiGelDesign will engage with known large distributors that help other companies to sell their hydrogels and bioinks in these markets.
Business Plan and Financial Feasibility study
Because 3D bioprinting can also be referred to as the next generation 3D cell culture where precise spatial arrangement of cells, extracellular matrix (ECM) components, and biochemical factors are deposited layer by layer using a pre-programmed software and a bioprinter, we focused on 3D Cell Culture and Bioprinting markets
• 3D cell culture market
A range of 3D cell culture platform do exist today, namely, hydrogel, scaffolds, scaffold-free spheroid, bioreactors and microchips. The global 3D cell culture market size was worth around $465 million in 2016 , hydrogels dominated the market with a share of over 41% ($191 million). Analysts expect that the whole market will reach $1345.2 Million by 2021, at a CAGR of 23.6% during the forecast period of 2016 to 2021 with main markets being North America and Europe. 3D cell culture has suffered from slow market adoption due to the poor quality of the products on the market so far, their lack of compatibility with automated liquid handing system and lack of scientific evidence.
The 3D cell culture market is driven by increased investment in healthcare, R&D, and other research-related activities. The novel concept of customized 3D cell culture products has allowed small companies to enter the market. While there is a clear need to provide the market with an easy to use, ready to use generic and application specific bionk formulations, other opportunities lies in contract researching using 3D cell culture for toxicology and pre-clinical testing, drug discovery and therapeutic use.
• Bioprinting and Bioink market
The 3D bioprinting market is currently at an early stage of research and development. It is steadily emerging as an area that that has huge potential for both academic research, clinical and therapeutic applications. Researchers at leading medical universities and pharmaceutical companies use 3D bioprinting to print cells and build tissues. These printed cells and tissues are used for the preclinical assessment of disease models and drug development, including applications in predictive toxicology, absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics.
The bioink market segment is estimated to grow from $71.4 million to $135.9 million by 2021 CAGR of 13.7%. The bioprinting industry is segmented 5 types of users: Drug discovery and development (Pharmaceutical, toxicology services, biotechnology), Research (Support from funding agencies for innovative 3D approaches to study diseases such as cancer, developmental biology, stem cell and tissue engineering), Cosmetic (Cosmetic companies that do not use animal testing), Clinicals (Cardiovascular, craniofacial repair, orthopaedics, wound care) as well as those non healthcare related stakeholders such as agrochemical or veterinary sectors. These 5 pillars represented a $295M market size in 2016 and a growth forecasted to reach $2Bn by 2021 (43.9% CAGR)
• Product differentiation
One of the key advantage of PGD bioink is that it requires no post-printing processing, which makes it easily adaptable for high throughput screening. Other USPs include: printability, cell viability and control over cell behaviour, compatibility with cell/protein extraction from 3D matrices for cell counting or proteomic wok. Also, peer reviewed scientific evidences demonstrate the use of PGD bioink with various stem cell and primary cell types.
Other differentiators are: tuneable matrix stiffness, simple functionalisation, ease of use as the products are designed to be used at room temperature.
• Business Opportunities
Today, PGD bioinks (generic and customised products) and consumables to improve patient experience
Tomorrow, development of toxicology testing activities, customised reagent for specific applications and regenerative medicine
