INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Shak Lakhani, the 21-year-old chief executive and co-founder of Avro Life Science, started researching biomaterials when he was 15 years
old.Every summer and after school the teenager would travel nearly two hours by bus and train from the Richmond Hill neighborhood of Toronto
where he lived to the tissue engineering lab at the University of Toronto and develop three-dimensional, in-vitro models of tumors using
biomaterials.For three years, Lakhani worked in the lab, before going on to study nanotechnology engineering at the University of Waterloo a
It was there, in his first year, that Lakhani met another Richmond Hill resident, Keean Sarani, and launched Avro Life Science.Sarani, also
21, had his own history in life sciences
A former epidemiologist who worked as a research assistant at the aptly named Hospital for Sick Children, Sarani spent his high school years
working in community pharmacies before going on to graduate from the University of Waterloo with both an Honours Science degree and a
doctorate in pharmacy directly from high school.Sarani and Lakhani, who’re related by marriage, first met in the Village 1 dormitory
complex at the university
Within months of their first meeting the two decided to start working on the company that would become Avro.They formally launched the
business in January 2016, a time when Lakhani said the two college students would hold “startup Sundays” where they would pitch ideas to
each other in one dorm room or another on Sunday evenings, until they found an idea that seemed viable.Given their experience — Sarani in
pharmacies and treating patients and Lakhani in chemistry and material science, the two hit on the idea of drug delivery and patches.Avro
Life Science co-founders Keean Sarani and Shak LakhaniThe two initially toyed with a multivitamin patch for daily health, but through the
sniffles, watery eyes and sneezes of perennial allergy sufferers the two hit on the idea of an antihistamine patch to cure their own
ailments.The two won their first pitch competition three months after hitting on the initial idea in March 2016, and formally incorporated
their business in November 2016.Fast-forward two years and the two co-founders are just about ready to make the final preparations for the
first product with help from an initial seed round from investors led by Fifty Years, with participation from Susa Ventures, Garage Capital,
Heuristic Capital, Embark Ventures, Uphonest Capital and Buckley Endeavours
Individual angel investors also participated in the round
In all, Avro has about $2.2 million in the bank.According to Lakhani, the company has already developed a polymer that allows Avro to make
patches that can deliver hundreds of different drugs
Now it’s just a matter of gearing up for clinical trials that the company will run before the end of the year.The first product, Lakhani
says, is “a medicated sticker for seasonal allergies.” The company’s plan to get to market involves revitalizing drugs that pharma
companies haven’t been able to bring to market because oral delivery is difficult, Lakhani says.“Really the breakthrough is the
[proprietary] combination of materials that can hold all of these different drugs,” he said
“The method of drug delivery is the same as in nicotine patches
In our case as a result of the polymer and manufacturing method…
[the drugs] don’t bond with the polymer
They are micro-adhesives in the patch
Heat from the skin dissolves the polymer and allows the drugs to enter the blood stream.”Basically, there are tiny bubbles on the patch
and contact with (and heat from) the skin causes the bubbles to break and deliver any drugs in an unadulterated form to the bloodstream,
Lakhani explained.Because the company is using generic drugs for its first tests, it’s hoping to have an easier path to market to prove
the viability of its delivery system.Down the road, the company also has some pretty impressive pharmaceutical partners that it could tap
Avro is already working with Bayer as part of their accelerator program in Toronto, and that may lead to a deeper relationship down the
road, according to Lakhani.The first drug that the company is testing is Loratadine (a common antihistamine).“In the coming years, we
envision bringing a number of other patches to market for drugs addressing neurodegenerative diseases, cardiac health, analgesics and many
more to improve drug delivery and compliance while revitalizing pharma pipelines,” Lakhani wrote in an email
“One day we hope to allow large pharmaceutical companies to ‘rescue’ drugs that they spent billions of dollars developing, but failed
trials due to low bioavailability, high liver toxicity from an entire pill being metabolized at once.”For Fifty Years co-founder Seth
Bannon, Avro’s technology is a “Holy Grail” for drug delivery that can save pharmaceutical companies billions of dollars.“The market
for this is absolutely massive
Initially, Avro can manufacture and sell patches carrying generics direct to consumer to address issues like compliance with children and
the elderly,” wrote Bannon, in an email
“Because Avro can deliver many drugs transdermally… When you deliver drugs transdermally, you significantly reduce liver toxicity and
This means pharma can rescue drugs that just barely failed in Phase III
Pharma will pay a lot for this.”
