In this series “Meet the people behind Biotech Booster” we introduce you to the passionate people who are involved in our mission.
A big part of our team consists of Biotech Booster business- and impact developers. They operate on a national level within five distinct Thematic Clusters (TC’s) that each represent specific biotech focus areas. Our business- and impact developers collaborate nationally on a daily basis to identify early stage high-potential biotechnology findings. They guide scientists and aspiring entrepreneurs in their journey to transform their ideas into successful biotech businesses so that biotechnology findings have a faster positive impact on society.
Name
Rick Meurders
What is your role within Biotech Booster?
I am a Business Developer for Biotech Booster at Radboudumc. I’m part of Thematic Cluster 3 (TC3) and we focus on Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products and related enabling technologies. For instance, at TC3 we support new ways of targeting and delivering pharmaceuticals and antibody therapies that can fight autoimmune diseases.
Can you describe your role in a nutshell?
Find, select, and support highly innovative inventions that can cure patients in the future. Let’s call this 1-on-1 support. On a more general level: we try to make the field of biotech a little better, by finding solutions for hurdles that every biotech case needs to overcome. For instance, almost every case we see can use thorough market research to conclude the target population of a certain therapeutic. For those types of recurrent issues, we are developing templates or workflows so everyone can tap into this knowledge.
What motivated you to join Biotech Booster’s mission?
I think this is one of the first projects in the Netherlands where a significant part of the universities, university medical centers, and Universities of Applied Sciences really work together on specific cases. This is not only helpful for the applicants of Biotech Booster since we can use knowledge of all these institutes, but it is also very nice to meet so many new and motivated business developers in the field.
What do you love most about your role? Pick one thing!
The hands-on support we can provide for project teams. We always work with more Business and Impact Developers on a certain case and, as mentioned, this combines a lot of knowledge and expertise to offer the best support. And I learn a lot from the others as well!
You’ve been involved in Biotech Booster for a while. What are you most proud of?
In a really short amount of time, we managed to fund more than 50 cases. This was a challenge but we succeeded. During this pressure cooker, you get to know your colleagues very fast, which was a nice side effect of this period.
If you had a few million to invest in biotech, what type of company would you start yourself or in which company would you invest and why?
I would invest this into an AI driven company that can make large datasets available for ‘consumption’ for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. The thing is, I don’t know much about AI itself, and so I would need some help 😊. Furthermore, I’m fascinated by the promise of RNA therapeutics but it is a challenging field. Although I’m convinced that we are at the forefront of big breakthroughs in this area. Possibly both topics can be combined in my new company!
Anything else you’d like to mention?
Please reach out to me if you have any questions. I’m always open for new ideas or possibilities.
