Ian and Eugene Chan MD grew up learning about the value of medical research from their pharmaceutical scientist father. That early exposure hit home when their mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Cancer therapies were slow to develop and the brothers were on a mission to speed the pace of promising new antibody therapies.
That mission led to the founding of two bio technology firms, the latest of which is Abpro. The Woburn, Massachusetts-based company was founded in 2007, with Ian Chan serving as CEO and Eugene Chan MD serving as Chairman. Ian runs the business side, while Eugene runs the medical side. This founder’s journey story is based on my interview with the Chan brothers.
“The main reason we started the company was we saw a large opportunity with the Human Genome Project having been completed a few years back, that there were a lot of new potential drug targets that could really revolutionise medicine, and bring a lot of benefits to patients facing severe disease,” says Ian.
Still in their early twenties, the brothers founded their first company US Genomics, a high-speed gene sequencing company focused on identifying and quantifying DNA, RNA, and proteins in complex samples. While the company experienced some early success, they came to differences in strategy with their VC investors.
Abpro Co-Founder and CEO Ian Chan.
Abpro Co-Founder and Chairman Eugene Chan.
That disagreement eventually led to the pairs’ ouster from their own company and became a cautionary tale for how they would approach the founding and building of Abpro. “We started looking for ways to really develop a company with a very long term view. We just wanted to build it, I’m not sure if organically is the right word, but certainly take our time to build it,” says Eugene.
Not surprisingly, they decided early on to not take on any venture capital or other outside investments and would take a conservative approach to growth by relying on technology and running a small, but highly efficient operation. “That was definitely a rough experience. We were young 25-year-olds, but we didn't really want to repeat that experience,” says Eugene.
Today, Abpro is positioned as a pioneer in industrial biochemistry and an emerging leader in the reagents field. True to their original mission, the company’s proprietary technology platform allows for faster, more efficient production of recombinant proteins and antibodies. Both independently and through collaborations with global pharmaceutical companies and research institutions, they develop therapeutic antibodies for use in immuno-oncology, ophthalmology, and other disease areas. Their “DiversImmune” platform enables the generation of novel antibodies and next-generation antibody therapies.
“Our near term goal is to certainly advance our programs through the clinical stage as quickly and as efficiently as possible. That includes our eye care program and our oncology programs for progressive gastric cancer. Followed by our COVID program for the immunosuppressed,” says Eugene.
Despite its success, it has remained small with only 25 employees, relying on a wide network of highly-skilled doctors and bioscientist contributors. Like many bio-tech companies, they partner with large, well-resourced pharmaceutical companies to bring their therapies to market. It just recently announced a $85 million global partnership deal Korean pharmaceutical company Celltrion.
In addition, the company put aside its longstanding policy to eschew outside investment in 2016, nine years after its founding, raising a total $42 million to date.
The Chan brothers grew up in rural western New Jersey. Growing up in a household with a bio scientist father they had heard many stories about developing therapies. Initially they both thought a medical career was the best path to help bring about these life-changing therapies. Ian started out in college in a pre-med program, but later switch to business. Eugene did go to medical school and remains a licensed doctor.
As they learned more about bio technology, they came to the conclusion that by bringing new bio engineered therapies to market they could treat many thousands of people, rather than treating one patient per hour in a medical practice.
So, without any special training or academic backgrounds, the route for many bio technology entrepreneurs, they set out to build a high-speed gene sequencing company. “We learned by just jumping in and doing it,” says Ian. The failure of that company set the stage for how the brothers would approach their next company, leading to the success of Abpro.
As for the future? “Our goal is to be able to treat as many patients as we can with severe disease. And the more of those patients that we treat I think the happier we’ll be,” concludes Ian.
