The Business of Breast Cancer

Photo Credit: Marshall Franklin Long

It's not uncommon for executives to talk about their company's market opportunity and potential profitability. It is, after all, why they are in business in the first place. However, rare is the biotech company that is open to discussing such things, especially in the same breath as their more altruistic goal of managing disease. Rochester-based Martell Biosystems, Inc. is that rare breed, and is refreshingly willing to court both sides of their circumstance.
"I'm a physician-entrepreneur in the biotech industry," says Franklin Pass, MD, chairman and CEO of Martell Biosystems. "I left the scientific world, the U of M, in 1979 to start a biotech company. I've been in the commercial world ever since. I have scientific training but I'm a businessman too."

Of course, a company like Martell makes nothing without a desired product, which they believe they have in FACTT (Fluorescent Amplification Catalyzed by T7 polymerase Technique), a platform technology dedicated to improving the diagnostics and treatment of cancer.

Invented by Dr.'s Mark Greene and Hongtao Zhang at the University of Pennsylvania, FACTT is a test that can detect cancer proteins in a patient's blood stream with vastly superior accuracy and sensitivity than the only other such test (ELISA).

"It's a very sensitive way-more sensitive than anything else that's out there today-for detecting small amounts of protein in the blood," says Pass, of FACTT and its initial focus on breast cancer. "And what happens with breast cancer, and maybe all cancers, is that little bits of protein break off from the cancer cell and circulate in the blood stream. Now, oftentimes it's such a small amount that you can't detect it with normal diagnostic techniques but we think we will be able to pick it up and that will be our business."

Martell Biosystems believes that FACTT will not only facilitate the detection of breast cancer, but will also help improve treatments and aid in detecting recurrences, which is where Pass sees the real gains, both fiscal and medical.

"Which of those three situations has the most commercial potential? I tell you that it's the third situation, looking for recurrences. I think it's going to be the biggest bang for the buck," says Pass.

And on the altruistic front, FACTT helping detect recurrence is "important because it gives the women the feeling something's being done for them" as opposed, Pass suggests, to the agonizing wait for a more tangible sign of cancer's return.

FACTT has tremendous potential beyond its current manifestations as well. "We think that we're a very early entrant into what's going to be a new paradigm in the detection and treatment of cancers," says Pass. "And when you come back 10 years from now the blood tests will be a much more documented and accepted way of managing these types of diseases."

Martell Biosystems will be headquartered directly across the street from the Mayo Clinic in the Minnesota BioBusiness Center-a decision made as much for the financial incentives it carried as for proximity to the state's largest oncology facility.

"Let me tell you why Rochester. [They] agreed to participate in a $100,000 no interest loan, for five years. Then there's another fund there which is called a RAEDI Fund (Rochester Area Economic Development Inc.) and they have also committed to a sizeable investment," says Phil Messina, another biotech vet and Martell's president and COO, explaining the precise reasoning a company formed in the Twin Cities would locate an hour and a half south. "So that's attractive to us. The other attraction is, quite honestly, that it's right across from Mayo. Once they start to see the success that we have with this test, there's no reason why they wouldn't go to us for those tests."

Messina's comments illustrate the undeniable link between Martell Biosystems the medical pioneer and Martell Biosystems the shrewd business organization. And, although their laboratory-which will process blood samples in addition to acting as Martell's headquarters-is new, the company expects to generate revenue by the first quarter of 2010 with positive projections going forward. As Pass says, once they "gain enough visibility and penetrate enough university cancer centers to get the kind of recognition [they] need," solid revenue-$60 million is projected by 2014-looms.

"This will evolve into a multi-billion dollar business sector," says Pass. "And we think being an early participant has some competitive advantage, as well as our technology." A technology poised to, among other things, change the face of cancer treatment. MB

BizBrief
Martell Biosystems Inc.
Location: Rochester

Inception: October 2008
Number of employees: 3

Revenue: Start-up, no current revenue

Description of company: Early stage cancer diagnostics company introducing a novel serum test for the breast cancer marker HER-2.

Website: martellbiosystems.com 

Leader profiles
Frank Pass M.D.: Chairman & CEO

Phil A. Messina: President & COO

Patty Tam Ph.D.: CSO