Nearly four decades after launching Biocon, one of India’s earliest biotech companies, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is ready to be part of the country’s startup ecosystem.
Recently, she invested $1.6 million (around Rs 11 crore) in Philadelphia and Mumbai-based UE Lifesciences, the developer of an affordable breast cancer screening device. UE Lifesciences, founded by Indian American entrepreneur Mihir Shah in 2015, earlier raised $3 million from Aarin Capital and Unitus Seed Fund and received a grant of Rs 50 lakh from Unitus Seed Fund.
UE Lifesciences is not the only company Shaw has placed her bets on. In the last six months, she has been mentoring some healthcare startups in building business models, besides giving growth fund to Bangalore-based Oncostem Diagnostics that uses tumour cells of patients to determine the need of chemotherapy for treatment.
“Mine is just an ignition grant, but these devices are the future,” Shawsaid. “Cancer therapy is not one-size-fits-all, if you stratify them based on genomics, among other things. So you can tailor-make therapy, which are less harsh and for that early detection is very important.”
Her bet on UE’s iBreastExam device is based on the uncomfortable experience women face with mammograms. But Shaw calls UE’s scans “intelligent.”
Her conviction for
backing Oncostem is also because on the cost efficient way of addressing the issue of chemotherapy. “If you are a stage 1 patient, you might not have to go through chemo, our test helps determine that decision,” Dr Manjiri Bakre, founder of OncoStem said.
