Listen to this articleTechCompanyNews has been following the developments of Massachusetts stem cell biotechnology company Asymmetrex® for several years now. In that time, the start-up progressed from reporting the first technology for determining the dosage of therapeutic stem cells to recently beginning to market their new technology. Recently, we talked again with Asymmetrex® founder and CEO, James L. Sherley, M.D., Ph.D., to find out how the company’s new business is doing.
TCN: Dr. Sherley, we see that Asymmetrex® now offers stem cell counting for the first time with pricing on its website. How’s business?
Sherley: Before I answer your question, let me back you up a bit for an all-around momentous pause. Well, at least for us at Asymmetrex®. I just learned that our TORTOISE Test stem cell analysis service and our RABBIT Count stem cell-counting product both now have U.S. trademark approval. Our TORTOISE Test® service, which provides customers analyses of the different types of cells in their stem cell samples, is still listed at a negotiated price. But, you’re right. Our RABBIT Count® online calculators for rapidly determining the stem cell dosage of treatment samples are now available on our website with pricing for the first time. My pause is to recognize that this is the first time that any company has offered for sale a product that actually determines the dosage of therapeutic tissue stem cells.
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TCN: And so, how is business going?
Sherley: Couldn’t be better at this stage!
TCN: Does that mean you are seeing a lot of sales already?
Sherley: No. But, it being only a week or two from the start of offering subscriptions for our online rapid-counting calculators for order on our website, we are seeing a lot of interest indicated by the increase in website traffic. Sales should be following soon.
TCN: Our research indicates that Asymmetrex® has two other noteworthy new business developments this month. What can you tell us about your company’s equity crowdfunding on Fundable and your new partnership with German life sciences instrument maker OMNI Life Science?
Sherley: Like many boot-strapping biotech start-ups before us, Asymmetrex® is now at a critical point where additional financial resources would accelerate our time to profitability and get us over the threshold for more rapid growth. We have done well with federal R&D grants; and have another grant application pending review now and are planning on submitting an NIH Small Business Innovation Research Phase II grant application in early 2023. But an infusion of a relatively small amount of equity financing would erase the uncertainties of grant application success; and allow us to focus more of our energy on marketing and sales at this critical business milestone. We decided to try Fundable for achieving a quick raise of equity investment, as well as for positioning our company for a future larger Series A raise for building out a stem cell-counting algorithm development lab and for establishing a national sales force.
TCN: And what’s the deal with OMNI Life Science?
Sherley: Co-marketing and shared sales revenues for now. OLS is one of the first producers of automated electronic cell counters to understand the future fated by Asymmetrex®. The calculus is simple. Tissue stem cells are crucial for health and for innovations in medicine like stem cell medicine and gene therapy. Now that there is a method for routinely determining the dosage of therapeutic stem cells, soon everyone working with these cells will need to count them. The companies whose cell counting instruments control the input of the required cell count data into Asymmetrex’s stem cell counting calculators will command this new stem cell marketplace. OLS is working with Asymmetrex® to offer the first automated electronic cell counter that is packaged with rapid stem cell-counting capability. Called the CASY-PLUS, the new counter is now available for purchase from OLS.
TCN: Is OLS your only co-marketing partner?
Sherley: Yes and no. We are very excited about our current collaboration with OLS, who understands our vision; and developing similar co-marketing arrangements with other producers of electronic cell counters is a possibility. However, a more powerful future prospect for us is finding a partner to integrate Asymmetrex’s rapid-counting calculators directly into an automated electronic cell counter. Our vision of the first automated stem cell counter.
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TCN: What does a user of one of your online calculators have to do now to get a stem cell count?
Sherley: A subscription from us gets them a username and a password for online access to calculators for specified types of stem cells. For example, for blood stem cells found in umbilical cord blood. If they have a sample of that type, they take a small amount of the cells in the sample and grow them for three days using basic culture procedures. On the first day and on the third day of the culture, they count the total number of cells. They can do the cell counting any way they want, manually or with one of the many commercially available automated cell counters. Then, they log on to the calculator, enter these two simple numbers, and instantly they get back the number of stem cells in their sample.
TCN: Yes, I see how readily such a software technology can be integrated with the automated electronic cell counters used to count the cells. Are the calculators expensive?
Sherley: Not now. [Smiles]. We think the introductory pricing of a $100 a month is a real bargain for something so important, that you could not get at all before, and now you can have it anytime you want it.
TCN: You celebrate Christmas, right?
Sherley: I look forward to it every year.
TCN: What would you like for Asymmetrex® to find in its stocking on Christmas morning this year?
Sherley: Lots of customers, good investors, or both!
TCN: Hope you hang a big enough stocking! Thanks for talking with TCN again.
Sherley: As you recognize, our vision at Asymmetrex® is very big indeed! My thanks to TCN for your continuing interest in what we are trying to accomplish at Asymmetrex® to improve stem cell science and stem cell medicine for patients. I am looking forward to discussing our future progress towards this vision with you and your readers.
