Hiring yourself by starting your own company
After finishing his masters degree in chemistry at the
The company
With Syntarga, De Groot and Beusker want to further develop chemistry-based anti-tumor conjugates. Drug development is, generally-speaking, difficult to pursue within an academic institution. One of the reasons for the team to set up their own company was the need to get access to capital. Since 2001, Syntarga has grown to seven employees, including the founders De Groot and Beusker.
They own two published platform linker technologies – the linker connects an antitumor agent to a targeting moiety and is designed to release the agent upon activation in tumor tissue, following binding to its target. Syntarga is working on broadening its patent portfolio with other conjugates. Several applications of their chemistries are currently being tested in animal studies. By using the Syntarga linker technologies, the anticancer agents only become active when they reach the tumour cells by using specific characteristics of tumour cells. This innovative way of cancer treatment reduces the harsh side effects of chemotherapy significantly. One of the main reasons for De Groot to found Syntarga was to bring the positive properties of this releasable linker technology into the long trajectory of drug development.
The joys of entrepreneurship
“Besides having a scientific reason to start a business, the independence and having complete responsibility were also personal motivations for choosing an entrepreneurial career path,” says De Groot, “and it is very exciting!” As CEO De Groot is among others responsible for business development. His daily activities consist of business development in the broad context; seeking corporate partnerships, creating and maintaining new contacts, forging collaborations, licensing, but also other activities like keeping a positive cash flow. “Recently we have expanded with two fulltime project leaders, so I’m now also doing the human resources activities for Syntarga”, reminds De Groot. “One of the most positive things of my function is that almost every day I am still involved in the scientific development in the lab, but I also carry out the commercial activities around the new technologies. I get the best of both worlds so to speak.” Positioning his company is one of the most attractive activities according to De Groot: “to have the freedom to set the strategic course for the company is very exciting and challenging.” Both Beusker and De Groot have a synthetic chemistry background, but with Syntarga their chemistries are moving more and more towards biopharmaceutical application. “We believe our chemistries can significantly contribute to the success of biotechnological conjugates, for example antibody-drug conjugates.”
The pleasures of working in the biotechnology sector according to De Groot are the dynamic and multidisciplinary character of the industry. “This relatively new industry is very dynamic, there is a lot of movement in this area of research and development. Personally, the move from the more fundamental synthetic chemistry area towards the life sciences industry has been a very positive experience for me. Of course with the choice of the topic for my PhD research I already made the first steps into the medical research area. The multidisciplinary character of medical biotechnology makes this field of research and drug development very appealing. I meet a lot of experts from various fields, this is very interesting.”
What makes an entrepreneur successful?
According to De Groot, a successful entrepreneur must have a clear vision of his goals and the way to set sail. “Our drive was to bring the releasable linker technologies closer to the patient. Our vision was created with this idea in the back of our heads. Of course you also need a unique technology position to base your vision on. In addition, you must have the ability to convince other people of its possibilities. This requires an active propagation of the technologies towards possible partners,” explains De Groot. “On the other hand you have to be a good listener, especially in this complex and rapidly changing industry the opinion of experts from complementary areas of research must be listened to. Finally, you have to be open minded towards the inputs you are getting.”
The Future
To broaden their portfolio of conjugate candidates, Syntarga aims at multiple partnerships. “Corporate partnering is my focus for the near future,” says De Groot, “besides that we will focus on expansion of our technology base so we can serve more future partners.” De Groot doesn’t have elaborate plans for the distant future yet. “We will continue to develop bioconjugation chemistries and applications with as many partners as possible.”
