Amporin: The Venture Leader Biotech tackling neurodegeneration

Meet Kelvin Stott, Co-Founder of Amporin. The biotech startup is developing a new class of small-molecule drugs to stop and reverse degenerative diseases. In June, Kelvin will join nine other Biotech innovators on a business development and investor roadshow in Boston.

Name: Kelvin Stott
Location: Basel, Switzerland
Nationality: British
Graduated from: University of Sussex (BSc), University of Cambridge (PhD)
Job title: CEO & Co-Founder
Number of employees: 3 cofounders
Money raised: CHF 350K—CHF 100K founders' equity + CHF 250K in convertible loans from Venture Kick & Kickfund


Can you tell us who your product or solution helps, and how?
At Amporin, we are developing a breakthrough new class of drugs that could potentially stop and even reverse the progression of more than 50 deadly degenerative diseases associated with protein misfolding and aggregation. Together these diseases affect over half a billion people and kill 3.6 million people around the world each year. Our products could potentially help these people to recover from disease and remain independent for much longer, without the need for years of full-time care.

What market are you addressing and what is the potential of your startup in that market?
Ultimately, we plan to develop the first safe and effective disease-modifying drugs for 6 major degenerative diseases based on our technology, including Alzheimer’s disease and type II diabetes, though we are initially targeting Parkinson’s disease and ALS. Currently, there are no safe and effective disease-modifying treatments for any of these diseases, so our products could help to significantly reduce the CHF 3 trillion in associated healthcare and economic costs each year.

How and where did you come up with the idea for your startup?
I created my first biotech startup to tackle these diseases over 20 years ago, based on my PhD research at Cambridge, but our understanding of these diseases was very limited at the time. Now we have a much better understanding of the underlying disease biology, but this has still not delivered any effective treatments. Frustrated by this, I designed a new class of molecules to target a different form of the misfolded proteins, and these showed potential for acute disease reversal for the very first time.
 

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What do you expect from the Venture Leaders roadshow, and how do you think it will help you achieve your vision?
I would like to build strong connections with big US Pharma companies as the US accounts for 50% of global drug sales and 80% of global drug profits. Furthermore, we will need to raise around CHF 200 million in equity capital to develop our portfolio ready for licensing to these pharma companies, so we will need support from big US investors, and the Venture Leaders program will help us to make these critical connections.

What are your team’s key achievements to date?
While the company is still barely a year old, we have managed to raise CHF 250K pre-seed funding from Venture Kick and Kickfund to start building our core team and operations, as well as a network of academic and industry collaborators to validate our technology. More importantly, we have already raised serious interest from 3 or 4 pharma companies, which is unusual for such an early-stage company, but I think this confirms we are on the right track with something truly unique and potentially groundbreaking.

Is there a key principle or value that guides you as you build your company?
Yes, it is based on the bold pioneering mindset of the old explorers: Think big and different, explore the unknown, challenge the status quo, ask the right questions, seek the truth, fail cheap, and learn fast. Above all, we must stay on a mission to tackle these terrible diseases and maintain our humility and flexibility in how we get there.

What is the most important lesson you have learned as a founder?
Nobody can do anything alone, at least not the big things that matter, and what brings people together is a shared purpose combined with mutual trust and respect.

What is your favorite productivity hack or tool and why?
At the moment it has to be ChatGPT. While I would never fully depend on it for anything, it is great as an intellectual sparring partner to test and challenge ideas, and also to draft written documents that I would otherwise find difficult to compose. I also write computer programs to automate a lot of manual data processing.

What was your dream job when you were a child?
To be honest I never had a dream job as such. I have always been lucky enough to follow my interests and passion to make a difference as time went by. As I tell my kids when they ask about their careers: don’t worry, I still haven’t decided what I want to do when I grow up, so just keep exploring and learning wherever your heart takes you and try to make a positive impact whatever you do!