On February 11, 2021, Moscow Skolkovo School of Management hosted the Investor Day – a pitch session event. Twice a year, graduates of the business school show the jury their projects and get a chance to get funded.

This year, the jury included: Andrey Romanenko, Oscar Hartmann, Maxim Medvedev, Mikhail Dubnov, Alexey Milevsky and other representatives of corporate and private venture funds. A total of 26 active investors listened to the pitches. Each speaker had three minutes to present the company and seven minutes to answer questions from the jury.

(watch from 1:42:00)

READ MORE

On February 8 – the Day of Russian Science – the winners of the International Medical Forum "University Science. Innovations" were awarded. The event was held for the seventh year in a row and traditionally unites different activities of universities in the field of innovative projects, helping to form a unified scientific environment.

Mikhail Zastrozhin won the first place in the category "Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research: Personalized Medicine" for the project "Development of omix technologies for optimizing the dosage regime of pharmacotherapy in order to increase its effectiveness and safety".

READ MORE

The Royal College of Psychiatrists is the main professional organisation of psychiatrists in the United Kingdom, and is responsible for representing psychiatrists, for psychiatric research and for providing public information about mental health problems. The college provides advice to those responsible for training and certifying psychiatrists in the UK.

It has been a very eventful and busy year for all of us. Having become residents of Skolkovo in December 2019, we were actively engaged in the product development.

The technical team created algorithms for evaluating of the effectiveness and safety of drugs used by doctors, the genes and loci studied in the pharmacogenetic study were identified and refined. A functional Personal Account was created for clinics and laboratories, where the interpretation of genetic research data can be carried out.

The scientific team was engaged in the development of databases that allowed us to introduce such nosologies as psychiatry, cardiology, neurology, and gastroenterology into the pilot work. During the year, more than 50 scientific articles were published in international peer-reviewed journals. One prospective study of 118 patients (48+70) was completed and published, and a second prospective study of 200 patients with endogenous depression is ongoing. Preliminary approval has been obtained for a patent application filed on behalf of the company. CEO of the company Mikhail Zastrozhin successfully defended his doctoral thesis. And we sincerely congratulate him and wish him further scientific victories.

The pandemic forced the team to deal with infectious diseases as well. A pilot algorithm for evaluation of the effectiveness of antibiotics and antiviral drugs was developed. A software module was developed for drugs used to treat COVID-19, including anti-cytokines, viral penetration inhibitors, and other drug groups. Target nosologies for development in 2021 have been identified.

During the year, we tested a variety of business-hypothesis and worked on the monetization of the product. Thanks to this work, we managed to find the first customers and get the first revenue. Agreements have been reached on commercial and scientific partnerships with clinics in the new year.

During the year, we actively participated in various competitions and exhibitions in the field of digital healthcare and became winners 6 times:

• Moscow biomedtech Accelerator
• Startup Academy Skolkovo’24
• The contest of innovative projects in the field of healthcare by Bayer and Skolkovo Innovation Center
• Grant from the genetic company Illumina
• GSEA International Business Competition
• All-Russian competition «Smart Clinic Technologies»

The agreement is aimed at developing a partnership between the Siberian State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation and Meditsina LLC in priority scientific and technological areas aimed at the innovative development of the Russian Federation, through the establishment, development and improvement of scientific and cultural cooperation, cooperation in the field of management.

The subject of the Agreement is the joint activities of the Parties for the development and implementation of projects for the personalization of drug therapy.

The agreement is aimed at developing a partnership between the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Central Clinical Hospital with Polyclinic" of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation and Meditsina LLC in the field of introducing personalized drug therapy technologies into clinical practice by 2021.

Siberian State Medical University, «DI Group» and Russian Venture Company, with the support of the Administration of the Tomsk region, summed up the results of the All-Russian competition of scientific and technological projects «Smart Clinic Technologies». As a result of the selection, four projects were identified, which will receive expert support from the organizers of the competition and will also be tested and implemented on the basis of SibSMU and the engineering company "DI-LABS". Among the winners is our project on personalization of drug therapy PharmacoGenomeX2.

Projects on predictive analytics based on artificial intelligence and pharmacogenetic testing, a robotic software and hardware complex, digital doubles for personalized systems-became the winners of the competition «Smart Clinic Technologies» and will be tested within the framework of the project «Digital Hospital» of SibSMU.

The conference was organized by the Guild of Digital Economy at the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry). The event was held with the support of the Moscow Government and the Department of Economic Policy and Development of the City of Moscow.

At the pitch session organized as part of the conference, promising startups in the field of AI and medicine presented their projects to a professional jury, which evaluated them in terms of the prospects of the development direction, the applicability of the idea as a whole.

The jury consisted of representatives of major technology companies, government agencies, pharmaceutical companies, such as: Innovation Agency, Moscow, Skolkovo Foundation, MTS eHealth, Beeline_MED, R-Pharm, AstraZeneca, First Clinical Medical Center.

Alla Panchenko, CBDO of PGX₂, made a presentation in which she spoke about our project and the results already achieved.

On December 10, 2020, the online final of the Russian-language stage of the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards GSEA Ru 20-21 was held. The winners received the opportunity to go to an international competition and a cash prize of $100k.

The jury consisted of successful businessmen, investors, and corporate representatives-Dmitry Grishin, Alex Chachava, Oscar Hartmann, Dmitry Volkov, Oleg Volkosh, Yuri Eremenko, Alexey Gidirim, Alexander Filatov, and many others.

The competition is organized by the leading international leadership organization for YPO executives, the community of like-minded entrepreneurs EO and the business community that unites high-impact entrepreneurs, Equium.

PGX₂ team took part in the International Forum of Genetic Startups of the company Illumina.

Genomics Startup Forum 2020 is tailored to the entrepreneurial community and focused on building connections, strengthening community, and advancing novel applications for genomics startups. Through this forum, we aim to inspire the creation, funding, and growth of transformative genomics companies. Our panel of speakers will discuss breakthrough applications while sharing expertise on how to raise capital, build sustainable competitive advantage, and create successful teams.

PGX₂ team received a $10,000 research grant from the international genetic company Illumina for genetic sequencing, as well as an invitation to visit the company's laboratories in San Francisco, USA and Cambridge, UK to conduct their own genetic research on Illumina equipment.

We thank Illumina and ILMN Accelerator for the opportunity, support and high evaluation of our project.

On November 24, 2020, Mikhail Zastrozhin, the founder and CEO of the PharmacoGenomeX2, successfully defended his doctoral thesis on the topic "Personalization of the therapy of affective disorders in patients with alcohol dependence based on omix technologies"at Sechenov University in Moscow.

The Dissertation Council of the DSU 208.001.11 of the First Moscow State Medical University named after I. M. Sechenov of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation voted for awarding M. S. Zastrozhin the desired academic degree.

The text of the dissertation can be found on the website of the Higher Attestation Commission

On October 20, 2020, the final of the Patent Power 2020 biomedical startup competition was held as part of the Open innovations Forum. The PGX₂ project was a finalist in the competition and received a grant for intellectual property protection.

The Patent Power 2020 competition is organized by the SKOLKOVO Foundation together with Bayer with the support of the world intellectual property organization, the Eurasian patent office and the Federal Institute of industrial property. The goal of the competition is to find medical startups with a high potential for intellectual property protection.

Three winners of the competition will receive a grant from Bayer in the amount of 700,000 rubles, as well as the opportunity to present the project to Bayer's top management. The winners will be able to use mentoring support from the competition Organizers for further development of the project concept, help in finding tools for further financing and (or) commercialization, as well as submit projects to partners for consideration and get expert advice on further development of the project.

On September 15, 2020, Demoday was held as a part of the Biomedtech track of «Moscow Accelerator». The jury and experts of the acceleration program of the Moscow Government’s Innovation Agency evaluated 18 innovative projects, among which a technology that allows to predict and avoid risks of adverse drug reactions – «PharmacoGenomeX₂».

Alla Panchenko, CBDO of PGX₂ pitched the startup, mentioning current issues, technology highlights, market and business model insights.

Invitro, the largest private company on the commercial laboratory research market in Russia, invited PGX₂ to launch a pilot project with a network of laboratories. PGX₂ startup team also received the right to participate in the final of the Biobridge international acceleration program in Austria in 2021.

The PGX₂ team thanks the organizers and partners for a quick and intense acceleration.

The Moscow accelerator is a joint initiative of the Moscow innovation Agency and the Moscow Innovation Cluster Foundation, implemented with the support of the Moscow Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovative development.

The partners of the BioMedTech track of the acceleration program are the HIMRAR group of companies and the Invitro holding.

The cluster's priorities are aimed at supporting and implementing projects in the field of creating innovative medicines, medical diagnostic and therapeutic products, new biocompatible materials and cell technology products. Special emphasis is placed on personalized and translational medicine, biomarkers, bioinformatics, as well as devices for diagnostics and monitoring of the state of physiological parameters.