Building Better and Cheaper Medicines: Mr. Andreas' Vision at Nanologica

Andreas Bhagwani is the CEO of Nanologica AB, where he drives pioneering work in mRNA and peptide purification, ensuring the highest standards in drug quality and effectiveness. With a decade of leadership experience in nanotechnology and healthcare, Andreas plays a key role in advancing drug delivery systems. He is also a co-founder and board member of Atrogi, a company dedicated to novel diabetes treatments, and has co-founded other impactful ventures like Sigrid Therapeutics and Gender Timer. Known for his commitment to healthcare innovation, Andreas’s work centers on developing transformative solutions that address critical medical challenges.

Pharma Now: Hello, Mr. Andreas Bhagwani! Welcome to Pharma Now. You’re the CEO of Nanologica, and I know Nanologica is up to some unique projects in terms of innovation in mRNA technology. But before we get to that, let me ask you an off-topic question: Today, you’ve flown to join me in-person in India. So, is this your first time in India?

Mr. Andreas: Well, It’s a long story. But, long story short: my family is Sindhi, and I am an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI). My mother is Swedish, I was born in Spain, and I live in Sweden.

Pharma Now: Wow, that’s interesting. So, what made you want to start Nanologica?

Mr. Andreas: That’s a fascinating story: A guy I knew came to me and said, “Will you look into this cool stuff?” I agreed and started working on it. In the process, I became the CEO of Nanologica. Fast forward 10 years, unfortunately, the cool thing we were working on was utterly useless. It was scientifically excellent, but you cannot build a product from it.

Pharma Now: Can you tell us what the product was?

Mr. Andreas: Well, it was a silica product. We’re working on something similar now, but that product could not be used for anything. So, when we realized that it could not be used, we decided to start a program for a new product. We canned that project three years after starting it because it was no good. Still, we had already begun this third program. Today, the products we are selling at Nanologica are made from scratch. 

Nanologica is a silica company. Silica is one of the most common minerals in the world. It is mainly used for peptide purification. So, if you have a specific form of silica, you can purify peptides like insulin or GLP-1. There used to be only two silica suppliers in the field. Today, we are the third supplier of silica. Our product lasts longer and purifies better than that of our competitors. That’s why there is growing interest in our product. Achieving this took a very long time–from the inception of the idea to actual sales. The first two ideas were canned. 

When we started promoting this product, people asked, "Can you do this? Can you do that?” One customer asked, “Can you manufacture a specific type of chromatography product purification media?” We said, “Well, we can look into it, and maybe we can develop that!” Then, we manufactured a product complementary to our silica product, which also took 2 years. Now, we have also started working on another type of product, which is quite different. 

Pharma Now: So, how do you decide which products to manufacture and which projects to pursue? 

Mr. Andreas: Our vision at Nanologica is to make cheaper and better medicine for more patients. This means that if our products do not provide significantly better or more affordable treatment, we won’t be doing it. We won’t work on a product if it is slightly better but has a much higher cost. 

Pharma Now: That’s an excellent goal, especially when you hear people accusing companies of focusing only on profits and not patient health. So, what steps are you taking to make this vision a reality?

Mr. Andreas: Products like insulin or GLP-1, I am sure you know, are called ‘diet drugs’ or ‘magic diet drugs’. Financial analysts say that this market will be worth 30 or 100 billion dollars in a few years. But, at the same time, more drugs of the same type are going to be manufactured in this exact growth period, which may be highly priced. But, when the patents of existing drugs expire, their prices need to decrease if they want to keep their market share. 

So, for example, if the cost of insulin goes below a certain threshold, we can start treating more people who couldn't be treated today. In such a scenario, two things will happen: First, public health will improve massively. Second, the amount of insulin manufactured and sold will increase because there will be many more patients who can afford it. So, this is just one example of how we are trying to be true to our mission: we are trying to bring down the cost of production.

Pharma Now: I understand that you work as a supplier, you supply silica. So, how does this affect the cost of production of medication? How will it impact a person’s medication?

Mr. Andreas: From a supplier’s point of view, there are two ways of lowering the cost for our patients. First, we need to use significantly better technology so that purification is faster or the product lasts longer. Both of which help reduce costs because the patient won’t have products that expire in a short period. The other method is to offer a cheaper and less critical product for chromatography, like silica or other types of media. 

In terms of mRNA technology, this is very important because several studies have shown that essential chemicals account for 67% of the total manufacturing cost, including CapEx. So, if we can lower the cost of essential chemicals, and we can considerably decrease the total manufacturing cost, which will reduce the cost of medicines and lower the cost of mRNA technology. 

This is very important because mRNA technology is just very expensive right now. It is a very versatile technology that can be used to achieve many therapies. It is fast and relatively cheap to develop, but the developed drugs are very costly. Especially in terms of India. We are in India right now, so I won’t talk about America because America can pay 4 million dollars for a new individualized therapy for pancreatic cancer.

Pharma Now: So, when you mention mRNA technology is quite expensive but it can help save costs, how much can it really impact costs? If companies were to reduce costs in terms of mRNA, how can they achieve it?

Mr. Andreas: For our chromatography products, it is maybe 20%. When it comes to mRNA, it also depends on other products. However, it can be at least 15-30%, depending on how many products we can replace, but it is significant. There are two ways to accommodate that, specifically in the mRNA field. 

The first is to manufacture using large-scale equipment. We are doing this for our other products right now. So instead of manufacturing products in a 1-liter reactor, we are manufacturing products in an 800-liter or 2000-liter reactor. This is not needed right now, but doing so reduces cost. The other way is quality. When you say ‘make it cheaper’, you have to keep quality in mind all the time because most people compromise on quality when trying to offer cheaper technology. The industry has to be careful not to do that to mRNA. Because if we try to cut costs by using impure chemicals–which have residues–it would be a disaster for patients.

Pharma Now: That’s interesting! What is your take on mRNA technology? What does the future hold for mRNA?

Mr. Andreas: COVID showed us how swift and cost-effective mRNA technology is from a development point of view. I am pretty intrigued by mRNA because mRNA blurs the silos of vaccines. I think oncology is the perfect example of where you can have vaccines with mRNA. If you combine oncology and mRNA vaccines, some patient groups can have prophylactic treatments. Using AI, we have provided individualized medicines to 600 patients in the US, and each patient paid 4 million dollars. 

AI can also be used to analyze data sets and come to some type of prophylactic conclusions about where we can test mRNA products. But, I hope new developments happen fast, especially in India, which has such a significant population and so many intelligent people. 

Pharma Now: So, what should the future look like for Nanologica and what’s your road map for the company?

Mr. Andreas: I would say, I’ve developed a practical map, but it will take a long time to implement. I have been working with one customer since 2017. Now, we are starting to get reactions. Still, we need to identify opportunities to save money for our customers and pursue business opportunities that lead to better and cheaper medicines for more patients.

Pharma Now: Certainly. So, are you planning to expand in the Indian market or any other international markets?

Mr. Andreas: Because we sell our products to manufacturers, India and China are very important markets. We have been in these markets for some time. If there’s a shift of the demand for some products away from China for geopolitical reasons, I believe the demand should end up in India. 

Pharma Now: Yes, I think this will give India a huge opportunity to solidify its position in the international ranking. Even though I am enjoying our discussion, unfortunately, I think our time is running out. Thank you Mr. Andreas for taking the time to speak with Pharma Now. It was excellent having you here. 

Mr. Andreas: It was nice to be here. Thank you.