Swift Biotech off to a promising start

Building on a potentially life-saving cancer screening tool in development by scientists at Mitchell Cancer Institute, Swift Biotechnology LLC has opened for business — winning second place in the Alabama Launchpad competition in the process.

The diagnostic test targets endometrial and ovarian cancer, which attack some 40,000 American women each year. Because the two common cancers cause few symptoms and there is no viable screening test, most women find the cancer only after it has spread.

It’s a life and death difference. These cancers found at Stage 1 have a 96 percent five-year survival rate; cancer found at stage 3 or 4 — as is most endometrial and ovarian cancer — has only a 23 percent five-year survival rate.

Frustrated at the difficulty in finding the cancers early enough to treat successfully, MCI scientists Dr. Michael Finan, Dr. Rodney Rocconi and Dr. Louis Pannell began work on a screening tool.

Meanwhile, Michael Chambers and Greg Grice were looking for a business start-up opportunity. Both have experience with biotech start ups — Chambers with InnoRX, a company that marketed a product developed by his brother-in-law, Dr. Eugene De Juan, for treating macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, and which was ultimately sold to Minneapolis-based SurModics Inc.; and Grice, who works in a firm that currently is working with a drug for rheumatoid arthritis that has gone public as the drug has moved into Phase 2 trials. Pairing the scientists with Chambers and Grice created Swift Biotechnology.

Both Chambers and Grice say they hope to keep Swift Biotechnology in Mobile for the long term. And both believe that the screening tool now in development, a technology they have licensed from MCI, is the key to success.

A few other companies have tests in development, Chambers says, but most rely on blood tests. The Swift product is based on a vaginal swab, which makes more sense to the company principles.

“If you want to know whether a company in St. Louis is polluting the Mississippi River, you wouldn’t test the water south of New Orleans,” Chambers says. Using a blood sample to test for disease in the reproductive tract is similar, he says. It might reflect abnormalities anywhere in the body.

Moreover, the test could easily be performed as part of a woman’s annual exam, and wouldn’t require highly technical training for doctors or nurses, nor expensive equipment, and could be handled by many existing laboratories. Grice, whose wife is a gynecologist, says this product should fit easily into the routine. “We’re not displacing a test. We’re disrupting cancer’s progress, not medicine’s.”

If the screening test found proteins showing the “fingerprint” of ovarian or endometrial cancer, then a biopsy would be recommended, just as it is for a woman with an abnormal pap smear.

Company leaders anticipate that the product could be commercially available in 18 to 24 months. Timing depends on FDA approval, but that’s easier with a screening tool than with a medical device or drug.

Even the location is an advantage for the fledgling firm, the leadership team says.

“We think it can be effective immediately,” Grice says. Statistically they expect that they’ll find at least one affected woman in the first 1,000 to be tested.

At age 60, women have a 1 in 120 chance of development of endometrial or ovarian cancer. For inactive, obese, diabetic women, the odds jump to 1 in 20.

“If you want to find the greatest collection of inactive, obese, diabetic women on the planet, that’s Mississippi and Alabama,” says Grice, displaying a map of the incidence of obesity and diabetes that’s heavily tilted toward the Southeast.

“Every company looks for an entry into the marketplace,” Grice adds. Alabama and Mississippi should work fine for their new company. “If you’re 10 times more likely to have the disease, that’s a compelling reason to be tested.”

Affected women would obviously benefit by having their cancer diagnosed while it’s still easy to treat, Chambers says, but the nation as a whole would benefit, too. If cancer is diagnosed in stage one, chemotherapy or radiation is not required, saving billions of dollars in health care costs.

Russ Lea at the University of South Alabama, the home of MCI, introduced Chambers and Grice and helped align them with the MCI trio.

While Chambers is president of the new company, Grice is officially just “an investor,” working full-time in institutional investing for a local bank. As soon as they decided to start up Swift, they also decided to enter the Alabama Launchpad competition — a contest organized by the state’s universities in partnership with the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama. Grice has been a judge for a previous competition, and Chambers was invited to be one this year — turning the offer down because he planned to be an entrant.

But the decision to launch Swift was late in the day, by competition standards. They developed a two-page synopsis business plan in 10 days. They made the first cut, from 50 entrants to 20, then developed their current 10-page business plan and made the finals. After a 12-minute presentation and 12 minutes answering questions, they were selected for the $50,000 second prize.

The money is critical, Chambers says. “If you open a restaurant, you get a license and start serving, and in a perfect world, you start making money. In biotech, you have an idea, then do research, then testing, then approvals. There is a tremendous need for money to validate the product.”

So far, Grice and Chambers are funding the company, with help from the Launchpad prize. They expect to open the company to limited outside investment next year. “It’s a high-risk investment,” Chambers says. “We have good technology and good people, but it’s still high risk.”

The scientific team is grateful for the support from Swift, says Dr. Rodney Rocconi. “It’s vital to have the business guys,” he says. “A physician/scientist doesn’t have the expertise to take something from an idea to the marketplace. We can carry the science completely through, but don’t have the training or expertise to bridge the gap from lab to store.”

And the business team appreciates the scientists and the opportunity they present. “Where else do you have the opportunity to save hundreds of thousands of lives and save billions of dollars?” Chambers asks. “That’s a noble goal. It’s a great way to spend your time.”

—Nedra Bloom