Start-up spirit
10-minute test
Changing the business
Diagnosing blood from patients potentially suffering from sickle cell disease or malaria.
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Biome is taking the fast lane

Founded in late 2018, the digital innovation hub Biome has already changed the way Novartis delivers on its promise to fold high-tech and digital solutions into its operations. The collaboration with US-based diagnostics startup Hemex Health in the realm of sickle cell disease could prove decisive in getting a grip on this crippling blood disorder which affects tens of millions of people in Africa alone and 300 million worldwide.

Text by Goran Mijuk, photos by Laura Morton

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Thanks to high-end diagnostic tools, a few drops of blood are enough to establish within a few minutes whether a patient suffers from sickle cell disease or malaria.

arrow-rightStart-up spirit
arrow-right10-minute test
arrow-rightChanging the business

Published on 15/06/2020

For Patti White, time is of the essence. The serial entrepreneur from the United States has been in the healthcare startup business for decades and knows that speed, accuracy and a clear set of criteria are vital to take a venture from idea to success.

But even she was surprised when Novartis approached her in late 2018 and – within a few weeks – made her diagnostics company, Hemex Health, part of a major healthcare program to fight sickle cell disease in Africa.

“I received an e-mail from Novartis sometime in late 2018, but, to be honest, I did not respond because most incubators don’t bring enough relevant value, especially for emerging markets,” Patti White recalls the first fleeting touchpoint with Novartis. “A few weeks later, however, I received a call from Robin Roberts from Novartis and, very soon, we found ourselves in Ghana to be a part of the company’s sickle cell program there.”

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Patti White explains the functionalities of Hemex’s Health’s diagnostic device.

Start-up spi­rit

Hemex Health was founded in 2016 to bring the power of advanced technology to the point of need. Its breakthrough diagnostic tools aimed at detecting sickle cell disease and malaria, appeared on the radar of Robin Roberts shortly after he, Jacob LaPorte and Shwen Gwee co-founded the Novartis Biome in early 2018. The platform was set up to work with startups and large tech companies that could help Novartis accelerate its business. 

“The Biome is not a conventional incubator for startup companies,” Roberts said, who combines deep expertise in drug development and digital health. “We want to eliminate the inherent friction between tech and big pharma and work with companies which have ideas and solutions that solve real-world problems within Novartis. This will allow us to fold these solutions into our operations quickly and help improve our innovation power and productivity which ultimately benefits our patients.”

Hemex Health was the perfect fit. Roberts, who had previously worked in drug development at Novartis, saw the huge potential of the diagnostic tool. He learned of Hemex Health while doing a routine scan of the startup landscape in search of potential partners that could solve current business challenges.

“One of my former mentors was Patrice Matchaba, who is today running our Global Health efforts, and I knew that he was launching a new sickle cell program in Ghana,” Roberts recalls. “When I spotted Hemex Health, I felt the synergies were obvious and I called up Patrice to propose the idea to him.”

As part of its sickle cell program in Ghana, Novartis has entered into an agreement with the Ministry of Health and others to establish a framework to tackle this hereditary blood disease which affects more than 300 million people worldwide, most of them in Africa. Every year in Ghana alone, 15 000 children are born with the disease, which can lead to stroke and severe infections. Close to 80 percent of the newborns who have the disease will not see their sixth birthday.

As part of the program, besides establishing treatment guidelines and setting up centers of excellence, Novartis is also providing access to a generic therapy to treat the disease and is planning to carry out a clinical trial with an experimental biological drug – the first such trial on the continent.

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Robin Roberts, standing, and Patti White during a meeting at the Biome in San Francisco.

10-mi­nu­te test

Hemex Health had a convincing proposition to be part of that program. Its diagnostic tool, a miniaturized, automated version of the electrophoresis test, was designed to detect genetic blood disorders such as sickle cell disease in less than 10 minutes. 

This was not only a huge leap compared with conventional diagnosis. It also had the potential to solve one of the biggest challenges to getting the condition under control.

“The standard way of detecting sickle cell disease is to take a patient’s blood sample and send it to a lab,” Roberts says. “It can take weeks before the results come back. In Africa, this can be a big problem.” Due to these long waiting periods, patients from rural regions who arrive at a hospital will not get the results in time before they leave.

“With the solution from Hemex Health, we are in a position to diagnose the disease immediately and help doctors start treatment and/or provide counseling where needed.”

Robin Roberts

When they go back to their homes and villages, it is often difficult to track them down and the majority never receive the lifesaving treatment they need.

“With the solution from Hemex Health, we are in a position to diagnose the disease immediately and help doctors start treatment and/or provide counseling where needed,” Roberts says.

1 + 1 = 3

After Robin Roberts proposed the collaboration, Patrice Matchaba invited Hemex Health to Ghana, where Novartis and the Sickle Cell Foundation convened a meeting with all program partners and was testing several potential diagnostic tools.

“When we were invited to Ghana to show our diagnostic solution, we really felt the power of collaboration, proving that 1 + 1 sometime makes 3,” Patti White recalls. “We were able to speak to all the stakeholders and work on a solution that would allow us to create synergies with Novartis and healthcare specialists in Ghana.”

Soon after Novartis decided to collaborate with Hemex Health, the company was able to start approval procedures with the Ghanaian government and the Biome was able to align support from Novartis regulatory experts in Ghana helping Hemex Health obtain a first-of-its-kind Ghana FDA approval for the Gazelle device. “Time is always of the essence when you are working in the startup sector,” says Patti White. “This is not always the case with big and complex corporations. But Novartis, thanks to its Biome platform, is reaching across boundaries to identify collaborations and have these benefit patients with great needs but limited resources.”

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Patti White was impressed by the work speed of Novartis. 

Chan­ging the busi­ness

For Robin Roberts, Hemex Health is also a proof-of-concept that the Biome approach makes good business sense for Novartis and is adding value to the company.

“When we created the Biome, we really wanted to find a way to help the business solve problems by leveraging the great talent and solutions being developed in the digital health ecosystem. We not only want to help identify and onboard a partner but also help them understand how to ‘pressure-test’ these solutions so that the decision to scale these technologies is made using real data leading to a successful scale-up. This is the only way we will ever harness the true value of these solutions and transfer that to our businesses and, more importantly, to our patients,” Roberts says. “With Hemex Health, we have proven that this is feasible.”

So far, the Biome, which has offices in San Francisco, Paris, London and most recently in Hyderabad, has initiated more than 30 collaborations. 

Roberts expects demand to pick up over time as business leaders become acquainted with market scans, pitch meetings, innovation challenges and so-called agile sprints, which are common in the world of digital product development but may seem unfamiliar for pharmaceutical and healthcare experts.

“To have a solution now that can help immediately diagnose children suffering from sickle cell disease and potentially save millions of lives is a testimony to that disruptive digital spirit which we want to bring to Novartis.”

Robin Roberts

Meetings are less stiff. At a recent meeting in San Francisco, one of the Biome partners brought her dog – “so Silicon Valley,” said our photographer Laura Morton, who in 2017 published a series for Wired on the digital culture in the Bay Area. 

As unconventional as they may seem for outsiders, the meetings are always solutions-oriented. “When you work in the tech industry, things seem more relaxed,” says Robin Roberts. “Yet all the energy is directed to create new things and disrupt old ways.”

This is not idle talk. “To have a solution now that can help immediately diagnose children suffering from sickle cell disease and potentially save millions of lives is a testimony to that disruptive digital spirit which we want to bring to Novartis and help boost our mission to improve and extend people’s lives.”

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