Altis Biologics: From Labs to Riches? Update
Author :
Diran Soumonni & Stephanie Townsend
Pages :
19 pages
Product Type :
Case
Reference # :
WBS-2017-9
Teaching Note :
not available
Institute:
Wits Business School - University of the Witwatersrand
Setting:
South Africa
Year:
2017
Keywords:
Entrepreneurship
Summary/Abstract:
In January 2017, Dr Nicolaas Duneas, founder and chief executive officer of Altis Biologics – a small, South African-based biotechnology company specialising in bone regeneration – was beginning to wonder whether he had chosen the right strategy for commercialising his technology. Bone regeneration was necessary when broken or damaged bones could not heal themselves and surgeons had to use a catalyst to enable the process. In the early 2000s, Duneas had developed a catalyst derived from humanised porcine bone, which provided a less expensive, more accessible and more scalable alternative to those derived from human bone and synthetic sources. (See Exhibit 1 and Exhibit 2.)
