Wintersemester 2009/2010

Executive Summary

Research on antibodies is the key to developing medicines to some of the world’s gravest diseases.

The market for monoclonal antibodies (mAb) represents the fastest growing market segment within the research industry. Antibodies are a major part of the human defence system. When considering the number of proteins predicted in the human and other genomes, current available mAb are far from meeting demand and represent a bottleneck for biotech research activities.

Company

Within this market CROMAB will be established as a Rijeka based monoclonal antibody trading company which identifies, produces and markets a unique collection of mice monoclonal antibodies for the basic research community. CROMAB will be a part of the scientific network which offers the opportunity to precisely meet customer demands and scientific trends. It bears the opportunity of finding the best antibodies with remarkable sales potential. Professor Jonjic is the key person with years of experience as well as an outstanding reputation within the scientific community. All antibodies that have been developed until present are ready for market entry.

Product

Naturally antibodies are an important part of the immune system. They can be used to investigate viruses and on the long run to fight diseases. Antibody-based medicines are a fast growing segment of the pharmaceutic industry and have proven to be very successful treatments. CROMAB offers an excellent collection of monoclonal antibodies for research purposes. The offered antibodies will be on the one hand produced by CROMAB and on the other hand by other companies, that produce mAb. Thus CROMAB will also act as a broker. In only a few years of existence the Center of Proteomics has achieved to develop a unique collection of mAb of excellent quality that can be used to investigate the function of various viruses that widely spread among world populations.

Market

According to The Antibody Report 2009 he antibody market is a fast growing market with growth rates of 9% in 2008. In 2010 monoclonal antibodies are predicted to generate 3 billion € in revenue. In 2010 CROMAB will have a 0,003% market share due to its position as a niche player. The market is expected to grow further especially as a result of the growing demand for antibody-based therapeutics which requires intensive research on antibodies.

Marketing

The most reliable marketing tool in the biotech industry is word of mouth propaganda. With Professor Jonjic as the key person of CROMAB and his very well established scientific network and reference customers, CROMAB will definitely gain recognition very fast. Although CROMAB will offer its assortment worldwide from day one, most requests are expected for Europe since Professor Jonjic’s network is based in this area. Furthermore CROMAB will sign up to the best known antibody search engines on the internet, for example antikoerper-online.de, where antibodies can be found quickly whenever there is demand. Signing up to these internet-based search engines will enable CROMAB to increase its degree of popularity.

Financials

Set up costs are very limited. During the incorporation phase of the first 2 years the financial demand is projected with €35.000 mainly personal costs, keeping required assets at €10.000. Since CROMAB will be located in the Science and Technology Park of the University o Rijeka personnel and production facilities will be rented by the Center of Proteomics which helps us to keep costs at a minimum. The company expects to reach break even in the 2nd year of its existence. Within 4 years the cumulated profit will under the most likely case exceed €100.000. Sales will rise at an average rate of 25,5% and are expected to keep this growth rate in the years to come.

Summary

CROMAB has great potential for establishing itself in the fast growing biotech market, precisely the research industry. Since it is very unlikely that the demand for antibodies will ever be fully met, constantly growing revenues can be expected. The expertise of Professor Jonjić combined with the closeness to the University of Rijeka and the scientific community will contribute to CROMAB’s success.

Cooperation Partner

• Prof. Dr. Stipan Jonjic
  Ani Gerbin, Dipl.–Bw.

  
  

  Center for Proteomics,
  University of Rijeka

Student Team

• Walter Pongratz

  
  

  Magdalena Stejskal

  
  

  Vera Woldan

  
  

  Simone Tömördy

  
  

  Christian Lindner