How extremophiles can help to replace syringes

From the Vienna University of Technology to a biotech start-up that could revolutionise medicine: Microorganisms take the lead.

Three graduates of the Vienna University of Technology set themselves an ambitious goal: In future, medicines and vaccines will be swallowed and no longer injected thanks to lipids. This will not only help people who are afraid of injections – it will also increase the effectiveness and storability of active ingredients. Julian Quehenberger, Oliver Spadiut and David Wurm successfully took the plunge into self-employment with their company NovoArc. David Wurm, one of the three founders of the biotech start-up from Vienna, explains what lies behind the ambitious project

What does NovoArc do, in simple terms?
David Wurm: NovoArc is a producer of special chemicals for the pharmaceutical industry. Our lipids are used to better administer active pharmaceutical ingredients to patients. People are familiar with this technology from the Covid vaccines, in which lipid nanoparticles are also used to protect the mRNA. We use similar lipids, but they are much more stable than currently available lipids. We want to make ingredients that currently have to be injected orally available, so that people who are afraid of injections can swallow a pill. This applies to a wide range of drugs such as antibiotics and cancer therapeutics. The Holy Grail would be insulin, but it’s still a long journey until then. Active ingredients that are protected by our lipid envelope are not broken down in the stomach by acids or degraded by enzymes; they are transported through, then stick to the intestinal mucosa and slowly release the active ingredient, making it easily absorbed by the body. Because of the stabilising protective shell, many active ingredients do not have to be stored at minus 70 degrees, but perhaps only at four degrees or even at room temperature.

Have you developed this technology
Wurm: These kinds of molecules, lipids, have been around for some time. Until now, no one had managed to produce them in sufficient quality and quantity for the pharmaceutical industry. We can do this both in a reproducible and scalable way. We hold a patent for this.

From the Vienna University of Technology to the founder of a company – what was the decisive moment to take this step?
Wurm: It was a unique opportunity. For one thing, the technology was something exciting. Based on the feedback from the industry, but also from investors, we recognised the potential. On the other hand, there was the founding team. We were aware that an opportunity like this doesn’t come around often and you have to grab it by the scruff of the neck. That’s why we decided not to take the classic academic or pharmaceutical route, but to take the risk of founding our own company.

Does the researcher or the businessman in you prevail now?
Wurm: It was a nice opportunity to have the best of both worlds. We will continue to be very research-driven; our co-founder Julian Quehenberger took up this part as CTO. I am very much involved with business development, with customers, the marketing and the business part, but I still have the connection to science. I have always been interested in applied research and not so much in basic research. It is exciting to follow the life cycle from basic research to the product.

You want to have your own production plant by 2025. How difficult was the financing?
Wurm: We are currently financing ourselves through three pillars: On the one hand there is public funding such as from the Research Promotion Agency FFG and the Austria Wirtschaftsservice AWS, and the other hand we already have paying customers to whom we sell lipids or for whom we process orders. And, of course, we have a financially strong investor. That also enabled us to expand. In June 2023, we moved into our new facility in Vienna near the Meidling station with 400 square metres, which is a mixture of laboratory and office space. For the years 2025/26, we expect that the demand from customer orders will be so great that we will no longer be able to accommodate it in the facility in Meidling and will have to expand further accordingly.

When will the pill replace the syringe?
Wurm: In the past, when a new drug was developed, it was assumed that it would take ten to 15 years for it to reach the market. Through Covid we have learned that it can be done faster. Accordingly, we are confident that we can do it more quickly. We are already in contact with some companies that are testing our technology and we are conducting preclinical studies.

It is always said that there are too many obstacles in Austria for a quick and uncomplicated approval of drugs.
Wurm: It is important that drugs are well tested and safe before they are put on the market. Of course, there are countries where you can get approval more quickly. We are very attached to Austria because all three founders grew up here and we want to keep our main location in Austria. But, of course, we are planning to expand into other countries and markets.

Are there already patents for your lipids?
Wurm: Even when we were still at the Vienna University of Technology, we submitted the production process for a patent and also received it at the European Patent Office in April. We have also applied for a worldwide patent, which is progressing rapidly. In the second field of application of our lipids, the administration of mRNA vaccines, we were also able to show in experiments with cell cultures that we are more efficient by a factor of ten to 90. With a conventional vaccine dose, as administered through a syringe, ten to 90 people could be vaccinated with our lipids. We have also applied for a patent for this process in autumn 2022.

When will NovoArc products play a significant role in cancer therapy?
Wurm: It must be said first that we do not produce active ingredients. Our USP is that we can protect active ingredients and make them more easily and better available to patients. Normally, we are contacted by a pharmaceutical company whose active ingredient has, for example, poor stability or is poorly absorbed by the body. We select the appropriate lipids, produce them and package the active ingredient in them. If the test results are good, the active ingredient manufacturer puts the drug on the market with our packaging, the lipids. Accordingly, we will not launch a new cancer drug ourselves. With conventional therapies, people often have to go to the doctor or hospital several times a day. I am convinced that we can contribute to the quality of life of patients with our technology.

What are thermoacidophilic archaea and what role do these microorganisms play in your products?
Wurm: This is our pet, our production organism that we use to make lipids. The organism was isolated from hot, sulphurous springs at the Yellowstone National Park and feels most comfortable in extreme conditions, such as pH 3 and 80 degrees temperature. Accordingly, its cell membrane, which contains the lipids we extract, purify and use as our product, is stable. The organism normally grows very slowly. It was not easy and took a long time to develop an industrial production process here.

So, you run a witch’s kitchen, so to speak, in Vienna-Meidling to create this environment?
Wurm: We try to recreate those conditions that the organism finds in nature and optimise them so that it grows faster and produces even more. Of course, this takes place in a very well-controlled environment so that we always achieve the same product quality. We use fermentors for this. These are steel vessels in which we control the temperature, pH value and other parameters, gassing and stirring so that the organism feels comfortable, thrives and grows.

Do you still cooperate with the Vienna University of Technology?
Wurm: We have carried out several projects in cooperation with the University, and we will also collaborate in future at a scientific level and with regards to infrastructure.

Is Austria a good ground for start-ups? What could be improved to make the business location more interesting for biotech?
Wurm: In Austria there are some offers for the start-up world, such as good funding programmes and support from AWS, where founders are motivated to take this step. As far as the start-up is concerned, Austria is quite well positioned compared to other countries. After the start-up phase, after one to three years, there is potential for improvement so that there is then support in whatever form. As far as the guidelines of Austrian and European investors are concerned, they are not particularly risk-affine like in the US. In general, however, Austria is a good location for founding a biotech start-up.

When can we buy shares in NovoArc?
Wurm: We haven’t planned an IPO yet, but we are also not exitdriven.