ROUBAIX, France - A young biotech company specializing in structural biology in general and molecular crystallization and protein analysis in particular is in the process of raising additional funding to finance its continued development.
Called BioXtal, it was founded in April 1998 by two brothers, Guillaume L'Hermite, a structural biologist by training, who is its research director, and Etienne L'Hermite, who has a business/marketing background and is general manager.
The company has been operating with capital of FFr500,000 (US$80,000) since its creation and is now engaged in a funding round to increase that to FFr2 million. Since it provides services to the pharmaceutical industry, it already generates revenues, and in 2000 expects to generate a turnover of FFr2.4 million, said Etienne L'Hermite.
The services provided by BioXtal come into play at a critical stage of the drug development process. It uses crystallography technology to analyze the molecular structure of therapeutic compounds, supporting pharmaceutical companies' modeling studies. It enables researchers to visualize molecular structures and biological mechanisms, such as protein-ligand interactions or the active sites of enzymes. It can thus play a role in drug and enzyme design and help pharmaceutical companies optimize active compounds.
"We help companies understand the structures of the proteins they are working with, enabling them to develop drugs more quickly and patent products earlier," explained Etienne L'Hermite, who points out that there are only two other firms in France that possess crystallography technology, and very few in the rest of Europe. Describing it as a high value-added business, he said there was a growing international demand for the services provided by BioXtal.
The particular areas in which it is working at present are neuronal degeneration and nosocomial infections (infections contracted in hospital), and its objective is to analyze 40 new structures a year. According to Thierry L'Hermite, the company is already profitable, because it receives revenues from the service contracts it has concluded with a number of pharmaceutical companies and has succeeded in limiting its capital investment by using third-party research facilities.
The company does not intend to confine itself to fee-for-service activities, however, because it is keen also to embark on in-house research projects. BioXtal currently has a workforce of four, but within three years it hopes to have increased its capital to FFr10 million (US$1.6 million) and to be engaged in 10 research programs.