Team:NCKU Tainan/Entrepreneurship
Overview
This year, iGEM NCKU Tainan 2020 used synthetic biology to create Eye kNOw, a pair of contact lenses that can provide a groundbreaking treatment for primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), which is an ocular disease that causes irreversible damage to the optic nerve. Affecting almost 80 million people worldwide, it is the first leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. POAG is usually caused by high intraocular pressure (IOP) in the eyes. Eye kNOw aims to solve it from the root. With our genetically engineered bacteria, that is capable of releasing drugs dynamically according to one's IOP and lower down the IOP.
To bring our vision and mission into reality, engaging with the customers and stakeholders is crucial. Thus, we conducted a survey to know more about how our customers think about contact lenses and glaucoma to identify more toward our market segmentation and target audiences. Through this survey, we not only collected the data about the habit of customers about wearing contact lenses but also discovered an enormous problem - people are not familiar with glaucoma. Hence, we did a lot of Human Practice events to raise and promote public awareness of glaucoma. In order to fully visualize the future of our product, we asked Camax Optical Corporation and Trade Wind Biotech for their experiences and guidance to learn about mass production and how to sell our product. Aiming to realize our project from the laboratory and apply it in the real market, we incorporated the advice and feedback from enterprises to establish a business model and a business plan for our project.
With all the efforts above, we can understand consumer’s needs and implement our project through establishing Eyesaac Biotechnologies.
WHAT WE HAVE?
Consideration
Development and implementation.
Visualize-Design-Test
Strengths and Threats.
Business plan
Realizing through a plan.
Value
The value of our product.
Future
Future development.
Consideration
We considered the core value of our products by combining what value consumers want and keep in mind when making the products. Following this value, we start to develop our project and realize our project.
Clinical Trial Phase
After consulting with College X, who provided guidance on business, we determined our product as a medical device and studied the national and foreign law about the implementation.
Patent Regulation
According to the research conducted for clinical trial phase, we decided to follow the regulation of medical device and applied to the patents below:
Based on Taiwan Intellectual Property Office, Prices for patent per 2020:
1. Design patent application: 3,000 NTD (104.96 USD)
(1) Request for the application converted into invention patent: 3,000 NTD
(2) Granted Invention Patent fee:
A. 1st-3rd year, 800 NTD annually.
B. 4th-6th year, 2,000 NTD annually.
C. 7th year and beyond, 3,000 NTD annually.
Customer Discovery
The targeted customers for Eye kNOw are mainly hospitals or other health care providers with the end-point consumers being glaucoma patients as a doctor-prescription drug, with the aim of slower down glaucoma progression, Eye kNOw will mainly be marketed and distributed by trusted distributors, and will be made available in conventional hospitals, ophthalmologist clinics, and pharmacies where it can be purchased only by the doctor’s prescription. Furthermore, prevention is better than treatment. If we can develop a new way to detect high IOP or the symptom of POAG in the early stage of it, those who have a high possibility of getting glaucoma can be our potential consumers in the future.
Customer Needs
Based on what we found from our survey for customers, discussion with ophthalmologists and considerations through a mediator that connects us with customer’s needs, here is our final design of Eye kNOw. After improvements and finalization of the products:
1. We intended to get coverage from major healthcare insurance providers, albeit national or private, around the world for the consumption of Eye kNOw to promote the use of our products. We aim to improve and enhance the patient’s life by setting up an affordable healthcare platform to increase the accessibility to anyone who requires medical advice, attention and products.
2. Considering our survey about safety, Eye kNOw will have a strong safety reassurance which is our kill switch. Because Eye kNOw contains our engineered bacteria, it is crucial to build consumer trust, which is why education about the safety and GMO products is important. Moreover,for another data from our survey and the short lifespan of our products, Eye kNOw needed to be affordable. Therefore, we designed it to have a minimum price of about $27.99~34.99 per box which is one month usage.
Visualize-Design-Test
To start Eyesaac Biotechnologies, we need a solid base foundation and have strategic plans to begin realizing our visions. Through SWOT analysis, we are able to identify and analyze the values of Eye kNOw, which we will then use to create a detailed plan to realize Eye kNOw’s vision and objectives.
Eye kNOw Lean Canvas
- Problems: Glaucoma eye drops have many side effects, Laser is an invasive treatment method
- Current method: Eye drops, laser, surgery
- Solution: Eye kNOw use NO to treat, which is no side effect and non-invasive
- UVP: A non-invasive early treatment method for glaucoma that can lower intraocular pressure to treat dynamically and no side effects
- TA: Glaucoma patients, High intraocular pressure, People with a family history of glaucoma
- Early Adopters: Glaucoma patients
- Key Metrics: Sales of contact lenses, Use the questionnaire (BLS) to understand the efficiency of advertising
- Channels: Ophthalmologists, Glaucoma related organization or event, Social media and traditional advertising platforms
- Revenue Streams: Sales of contact lenses
- Unfair Advantage: Dynamically releasing drug
Eye kNOw SWOT Analysis
Value Preposition of Eye kNOw
Business Plan
Eye kNOw project is developed by iGEM NCKU Tainan, and we plan to build our own company after the competition called Eyesaac Biotechnologies. CreSolution Biotechnologies have created a business plan on how we define our visions and what steps we are going to take to successfully achieve our targets.
Dynamic
We started by considering the value of Eye kNOw and came up with values that we will always embed in our minds when making the products.
1. Dynamically: Eye kNOw can sense the IOP fluctuation
2. Innovative: Eye kNOw combines contact lens with Synthetic Biology
3. User-friendly: Eye kNOw is easy to use and has no complicated storage method
4. Affordable: The price of Eye kNOw is in the range of 800~1000 NTD
Future
Eyesaac Biotechnologies will aim to expand the portfolio of medical products which employs our core biosensing technology to other forms of disease or medical conditions. Eyesaac Biotechnologies aims to expand the area served to cover most of the countries around the world, starting with China and Japan, which represent the largest glaucoma prevalence rates in Asia. Further expansion will be focused on the EMEA and the Americas.
The short-term goal for Project Eye kNOw is to successfully complete clinical trials and have the patents granted as soon as possible.We also aspire to change the public’s perspective on GMO synthetic biology and genetic engineering, providing accessibility and convenience to patients who require glaucoma prevention.
The long-term goals for Eyesaac Biotechnologies are to expand Eye kNOw into larger markets as well as adapting the technologies and frameworks established into treating other types of diseases such as diabetes and sepsis.
References
- Varma R, Lee PP, Goldberg I, Kotak S. An Assessment of the Health and Economic Burdens of Glaucoma. American Journal of Ophthalmology. 2011;152(4):515-522.
- Glaucoma: A Guide For Seniors - Aging.com. Aging.com. Published November 29, 2017. Accessed October 27, 2020. https://aging.com/glaucoma-a-guide-for-seniors/
- Vajaranant TS, Nayak S, Wilensky JT, Joslin CE. Gender and glaucoma: what we know and what we need to know. Current Opinion in Ophthalmology. 2010;21(2):91-99.
- The number of people with glaucoma worldwide in 2010 and 2020 By H A Quigley Container: British Journal of Ophthalmology Year: 2006 Volume: 90 Issue: 3
- Are You at Risk For Glaucoma? Glaucoma Research Foundation. Published 2019. Accessed October 27, 2020.
