#vleaders China 2016: Meet Marc Gitzinger of BioVersys

From October 24 to November 3, 2016, 10 great Swiss startups will go international with the venture leaders in China. Learn more about their technologies and business development objectives in China in our short interview serie.

Meet Marc Gitzinger, CEO of BioVersys 
BioVersys focuses on research and development of small molecules, which switch off drug resistance against existing antibiotics. The Swiss biopharmaceutical company addresses the high unmet medical need for new treatments of life-threatening bacterial infections that emerged in recent years due to antibiotic resistance, such as tuberculosis and hospital acquired infections.

Why do you choose China as your business development destination?
China is one of the largest markets worldwide and in recent years has seen a tremendous growth of the middle class. Along with improved financial wealth and modern cities the need for medical health and modern treatments increased significantly, rendering China one of the most exciting opportunities for Pharma. In particular though, infectious diseases caused by drug resistant bacteria bear a tremendous risk for China and Asia overall. Amongst many factors, a dense population, significant over-use of antibiotics in human and animal treatment have led to very high resistance rates in China and Asia.

The Chinese government has realized this and is taking action.For BioVersys this is a unique opportunity to be part of these developments and position our innovation and new antibacterial therapies early on also in the Chinese market. Thus we are looking for investors, healthcare officials and companies to collaborate with in order to solve the huge unmet medical need of drug resistant bacterial infections also in the Chinese market.

What do you want to achieve from the trip?
Have a better understanding of the Chinese regulatory pathway (Chinese FDA). Get contacts to Chinese investors looking for new innovation in drug discovery with a particular focus on urgent medical needs for the Chinese market. Drug manufacturers and R&D companies to partner/collaborate with during the drug development process.

Why is venture leaders China really beneficial for your company?
BioVersys is a small company with 10 FTE’s. Our focus is really on research and development of our drug candidates and advancing the technology. In the US and Europe, companies like BioVersys attract a lot of attention as this kind of “biotech” business model is well established with investors and Big Pharma companies. However, to start identifying the right people to talk to in a very complex and new environment like China, is very difficult for a small team like ourselves. venture leaders China offers an ideal platform to get to meet the right people in China, receive a very quick but good overview over the main technology centers in China and last but not least, the organizers (venturelab and Swissnex China) do everything to facilitate match making between the venture leaders and local investors, companies and official bodies. This is a unique opportunity for BioVersys to do in 10 days what would need 6-12 months if we’d try to do it by ourselves.

Links
Check out BioVersys online profile
BioVersys website
Discover the other venture leaders China interviews on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #vleadersChina2016
Check out the venture leaders China team of 2016