INEX Innovate (or INEX for brief) is Asia’s first ladies’s well being expertise group. As certainly one of Asia’s quickest rising medical expertise builders and medical laboratory operators, INEX focuses on growing and commercialising molecular diagnostic applied sciences within the areas of fetal well being and feminine oncology. With a broad business portfolio of validated molecular diagnostic assessments for prenatal well being, and girls’s oncology. INEX operates a Faculty of American Pathologists (CAP) accredited scientific laboratory that gives diagnostic testing and contract analysis providers in Singapore to purchasers proper throughout the South East Asian area.

Along with INEX’s rising portfolio of applied sciences which are below improvement, INEX is actively pursuing merger and acquisition alternatives, as a part of a regional rollup technique throughout Asia, with the primary acquisition of a Taiwan genomics enterprise introduced earlier this yr. The corporate is exploring additional potential acquisitions in Malaysia, Indonesia and India, with the purpose of making a high two firm in fetal-maternal and girls’s well being diagnostics in Asia. Based by maternal-fetal drugs specialists, INEX has been recognised globally with a number of accolades together with The Straits Occasions Singapore’s fastest-growing firms and the Monetary Occasions’ high-growth firms Asia-Pacific and has achieved accolades from Frost & Sullivan and the World Mental Property Organisation.

Coming off his current win on the EY Singapore Entrepreneur of the Yr Awards. LUXUO speaks to INEX Innovate’s chief government Kane Black on INEX’s function on the way forward for fetal-maternal care and oncology alongside INEX’s ambition to “democratise diagnostics”.

What introduced you into the sector of diagnostic analysis? 

Having been within the life sciences business for a number of years on the funding facet, diagnostics was an important half that certainly one of my unique co-founder’s, Ivanna Salehudin and I, noticed vital unmet scientific wants, particularly round ladies’s well being. The significance of diagnostics can’t be overestimated, as with out the provision of correct diagnostics you don’t have remedy. 

This culminated within the institution of Nova Satra Dx Pte Ltd – which started analysis & improvement right into a extremely correct liquid biopsy, or blood based mostly, breast most cancers diagnostic take a look at, an organization later backed by Malaysian conglomerate Genting Berhad. In 2019 following a number of conferences with the unique founders of INEX Improvements Change — Prof Mahesh Choolani and Dr. Sidney Yee along with medtech investor Kok Hwee Sim — we noticed a chance to deliver collectively, by means of a merger, Singapore’s two ladies’s well being life sciences firms – this led to the creation of what’s now often known as INEX Innovate Pte Ltd. 

Since then, the corporate has quickly grown from 10 workforce members to 55 members, with 35 in Singapore and 20 based mostly in Taiwan. Now we have launched 11 new lab-based scientific testing providers offering them to a rising community of greater than 200 medical doctors, clinics, and hospitals proper throughout Asia.

INEX now has 34 patents within the ladies’s and maternal well being space and 17 emblems, in addition to a variety of copyrights, domains and different mental property (IP) tied to its applied sciences. How necessary is analysis and improvement (R&D) in your enterprise? What proportion of your revenues are reinvested in R&D?  

As a medical innovator, INEX Innovate is deeply concerned in academia and analysis and improvement. We not solely assist the native eco system by way of supporting analysis, licensing and commercialising the applied sciences which are developed by the INEX workforce but in addition in Singapore’s centres of scientific excellence. INEX additionally offers the scientific and medical neighborhood entry to our applied sciences, I.P and know-hows to innovate and create new merchandise.

By way of the proportion of revenues reinvested in R&D, this has fluctuated dramatically on account of our pivot and give attention to COVID-19 testing through the pandemic once we centered all sources in supporting Singapore in COVID PCR testing with R&D taking a again seat. In 2022 and 2023 we refocused on R&D and invested roughly 50 p.c of revenues in R&D. In a normalised atmosphere usually we’d count on to see 10 to fifteen p.c of income being invested in R&D.

Registered IP being developed is essential because it offers the incentives that allow innovators throughout all kinds of industries to undertake the customarily dangerous, tough, costly, and time-consuming course of of making new-to-the-world improvements. At this time we see such intangible property, equivalent to IP rights, which now command roughly 90 p.c of the S&P500 market worth in 2020.

Established in Singapore, how has the nation which is thought for supporting quick rising SMEs, helped the expansion of INEX?   

Asia stands as the colourful epicenter of fast-growing markets, charming the eye of companies and traders alike. With a dynamic mix of various cultures, revolutionary applied sciences, and a burgeoning center class, the continent is undeniably the place to be for these looking for unprecedented alternatives. Having lived in Asia for nearly 20 years, in Japan, Hong Kong and now Singapore, it might be, in my view tough to discover a higher place to determine a enterprise as we speak than Singapore. With a well-developed ecosystem, deep pool of expert expertise, high quality manufacturing, the most effective infrastructure on the earth mixed with glorious assist from governing businesses, whereas being in South-East Asia, one of many world’s quickest rising and more and more necessary areas of the world, Singapore has been instrumental within the development of INEX. 

INEX was based by working towards obstetricians, gynaecologists (OBGYNs) and key opinion leaders in fetal-maternal care and oncology. How has such a debuting line-up in growing the enterprise impacted INEX’s core mission?

The founding genesis of INEX as a ladies’s and fetal maternal well being medical innovator stems from our co-founder Prof Mahesh Choolani’s deep expertise within the ladies’s well being enviornment as a practising OBGYN and pre-eminent key opinion chief within the space of fetal maternal well being. This basis uniquely offers INEX with deep insights into unmet scientific wants which has led us to many first’s – together with being the primary firm in Asia to launch Non Invasive Prenatal Testing “NIPT” with our iGene® NIPT take a look at, OvaCis® an intraoperative level of care take a look at package for sufferers who current with ovarian cysts and plenty of different applied sciences below improvement together with LEXI® a Pre-Natal Diagnostic Check and EpiDx® a blood based mostly breast most cancers screening take a look at. 

You’ve gotten said a number of instances that INEX’s ambition is to “democratise diagnostics” by making these medical procedures extra correct, out there and reasonably priced to the general public. Are you able to elaborate additional there? 

I used the time period “democratise diagnostics” to imply permitting or offering affected person’s with a selection. A selection within the sense that we make diagnostic assessments extra correct, which is vital for the early analysis of ailments equivalent to most cancers, extra broadly out there in order that they’re extra accessible and at a decrease price to communities – this disruption can actually solely be a profit to the societies inside which we stay. 

Our imaginative and prescient is to democratise medical diagnostics to ladies throughout Asia and around the globe. Bringing them improved early detection that’s extra accessible, giving ladies and moms better certainty and confidence of their well being and discovering illness early, thereby enhancing their probability of medical success. At INEX, we see each affected person who interacts with our merchandise as a singular being who deserves particular person care and a spotlight. Buyer satisfaction is within the core of our imaginative and prescient and coronary heart of our operations.

INEX’s epiDx® is a patient-friendly possibility that reduces discomfort from normal imaging processes. By utilizing a blood pattern, it shows larger sensitivity and specificity than current strategies. Are you able to tell us how distinctive is that this particular course of available in the market?

One of many huge points throughout Asia relating to breast most cancers is the stubbornly low screening participation charges. Mainly, ladies who ought to be going for normal screening aren’t. This results in a late-stage breast most cancers analysis when affected person’s outcomes are vastly lowered. By transferring to blood-based breast most cancers screenings on the affected person’s level of care GP, we are going to take away the related discomfort, which ladies usually say they really feel is degrading, and supply better accessibility to encourage breast most cancers screening. 

Moreover, it’s estimated 50 p.c of Asian ladies have, what is named, dense breast tissue. Dense breast tissue could make irregular findings tougher to see on a mammogram as a result of dense breast tissue and a few irregular breast modifications, equivalent to calcifications and tumours, each seem as white areas within the mammogram.

With this in thoughts we went about trying to develop a expertise which firstly has improved sensitivity and specificity, secondly eliminated the related discomfort and thirdly was out there at the usual level of care – with a view that we may deliver into common screening applications ladies who aren’t at the moment present process any type of screening and subsequently enhance affected person outcomes. 

INEX has carried out substantial research on ovarian cancers. What has been the finds and sensible developments within the labs and on the bottom? 

Ovarian most cancers is the fifth most prevalent most cancers suffered by ladies globally. Whereas that is much less prevalent than different cancers it’s sadly one of many deadliest cancers on account of it generally being identified at a sophisticated stage, when the prospect of profitable remedy is vastly lowered. 

That is due partly to there being no correct molecular screening take a look at at the moment current to detect early-stage ovarian most cancers, so preliminary ovarian most cancers analysis generally discovered based mostly on signs, equivalent to bloating, fatigue, weight reduction, stomach distention, pelvic ache and feeling full shortly. Sadly, by the point most sufferers with ovarian most cancers see a health care provider, 70 p.c to 80 p.c are already late stage. That’s as a result of the signs of ovarian most cancers are so obscure, and sufferers usually expertise them for months earlier than looking for assist.

With this unmet want in tackling ovarian most cancers, the workforce at INEX have developed two options. The primary is OvaCis® an intra-operative level of care take a look at, that’s used to check if an ovarian cyst is benign or malignant (cancerous). As many as 1 in 10 ladies sooner or later of their lifetime will develop an ovarian cyst. Whereas these cysts will, most of the time, show to be benign and can clear up with out remedy, it is necessary that they’re examined. Present observe is what is named a “frozen part” the place a surgeon removes a part of the tissue and sends to a pathologist who freezes the tissue with liquid nitrogen, slices the tissue into sections, after which stains it with particular staining options in order that it may be seen below a microscope. This course of takes as much as an hour and isn’t universally out there. INEX’s OvaCis® answer is a extremely delicate and particular, and is made on a lateral circulate system, like a COVID-19 ART take a look at package for ease of use, with out want for sophisticated procedures. It merely makes use of the fluid which is from throughout the cyst, which is then positioned onto the system and visualised inside quarter-hour to decide if the cyst is benign or malignant. 

Secondly we’re growing a blood-based ovarian most cancers screening take a look at dubbed Xena® – a minimally invasive and environment friendly technique of screening for ovarian most cancers. Xena® measures the degrees of microRNA within the blood, particularly selecting up an irregular expression of microRNAs which are correlated with the presence of ovarian most cancers. Xena® is aimed to be launched in late 2024.

You shared that “with a gifted, entrepreneurial and devoted workforce, we’re on monitor to turning into Asia’s main molecular diagnostic developer”. What’s subsequent on the horizon for INEX, an IPO? 

INEX is increasing each organically, by way of new product launches and new market entry, and thru acquisition. As a part of our pan-Asia roll-up technique we not too long ago introduced the acquisition of a Taiwan based mostly genomics group, that has a rising North Asia enterprise with revenues emanating from Taiwan, Japan and Korea. 

We’re at the moment in negotiations on one other potential acquisition of a agency which is the market chief of their nation in fetal-maternal and girls’s well being testing, moreover we’re exploring different potential synergistic M&A alternatives. With this we purpose to be a top-two participant in each market in Asia in fetal-maternal and girls’s well being. 

Now we have been actively finding out plenty of potential IPO alternatives right here in Singapore, London, New York and a few of the regional bourses. Nonetheless in mild of the present difficult and sub-optimal situations within the IPO market, we’re affected person till a window of alternative opens to progress to an eventual IPO.

You’ve gotten received the extremely coveted EY Singapore Entrepreneur of the Yr Award for the biotechnology sector in 2022. What had been your ideas on receiving this recognition for the work you and your workforce have produced?  

Being certainly one of six winners to be chosen by an unbiased judging panel from near 140 nominations for the EY Singapore Entrepreneur of the Yr Award 2022 was an extremely proud second for me and my workforce. On the finish of the day as a frontrunner one can solely be nearly as good as one’s workforce and this recognition actually is a credit score to the whole workforce of devoted, pushed, and sensible members at INEX Innovate and iGene Laboratory. I’m grateful and honored to function Chief Govt of INEX and iGene.

For those who had been to call one mentor who has impressed you in your life and profession, who would that be? 

I’ve learnt and been impressed by many individuals in my life from all completely different walks, from my first Japanese boss to enterprise companions, family and friends. I’m an avid reader of biographies and auto biographies and consider these are sometimes a supply of nice inspiration. You’ll be able to be taught, and be impressed by, what has taken somebody 20, 30, 40 or 50 years of expertise in a couple of hundred pages.

For extra data on INEX, click on right here. 

For extra on the most recent enterprise reads, click on right here.