Lujen Pharmed, a business like a startup

Biotechnology technology is growing rapidly and specialists in this field are also working in the country. Dr. Ramin Fazel is one of these people who, in addition to managing the ups and downs of business in this field, is also in charge of specialized accelerator management. Do not miss the conversation of Accomotive with them.

Where did Dr. Fazel come from?

I am a full-time PhD graduate in Biotechnology from the University of Tehran; At first, I entered the field of medicine, but after a while, I saw my future in biotech and changed my major. Continuing PhD in Biotech is a field offered only by the University of Tehran, so after entering the diploma, we enter the PhD degree directly and go through all the bachelor’s, master’s, etc. courses in its format, with the difference that In the meantime, we will not give another entrance exam. In my master’s and doctoral degrees, I tried to choose projects related to industry, and at the same time, I got acquainted with Dr. Mahboudi, Sinagen, Ariogen, etc., and I worked with these collections in the same way. Then I went to a study opportunity and saw my interest in pharmaceutical biotechnology. After completing my study opportunity, I started a business; Then on Liogen Pharmed Company I was invited to work and I have been working there as CEO for 4 years and recently Cena Clone Company Also integrated with this collection.

How was Liogen Pharmed established?

The company was founded before I joined Luigen Pharmed. Like a startup, Liogen Farmed has experienced ups and downs and unfortunately enters a valley of death at first; Because his field of work had shifted to “diagnosis using non-invasive methods” and this field had many complexities in science 15 years ago; For this reason, he failed and was in a semi-dissolved state for a while, until he made a strategic change in another field, and this coincided with my arrival in Lujen Farm; At the time, the company was losing money. We also changed our strategy a bit and strengthened the field of “drug quality control kits” as well as “providing quality control packages to biotechnology pharmaceutical companies”, because it had a pristine market and according to the connections we had, the situation improved. So that from 1996 until now, every year, we have progressed in all respects, and about 70 people are currently active in the company.

Why did you refuse to work for a company that, as you say, was in the valley?

This offer was made to me by a person whom I accepted very much; On the other hand, in my opinion, those who have a higher level of expertise and intelligence are very energetic and do not fit into the framework and structure; I myself may be one of those people and the few people I accept are Dr. Mahboudi, so when he offered me this, I did not care if the company was a loss or a profit, and given that I knew he had good potential, and most of all, his “potential” was remarkable, so I accepted blindly and I am very happy with this choice. Even before this collaboration, in 1987, when I had a position through the Student Association of Biotechnology and I was going to hold a conference, I was acquainted with his collection and I did my best to define my master’s thesis with him and his collection. To. When this offer was made to me, he was my consultant professor and I presented my business plan to him and we knew each other well. For these reasons, I was mostly focused on the potential of this business and the person who introduced it to me, and I was confident that I could do great things through these intermediaries.

You said you changed the strategy, how did you expand this business from the valley?

There were several reasons for this; The first problem was that we, like most startups, did not pay attention to the needs of the market. I think that based on my activities in the industry, I recognized the market needs well and evaluated the potential of Liogen Pharmed, both in terms of space, equipment and human resources. Based on these issues, we decided on quality control. Activate drugs; We value “quality” and are the only company with a GLP license from the Food and Drug Administration; The Food and Drug Administration trusts us a lot, and that is why companies trust us, and we have proven this quality over time, and even in recent years we have lagged behind the market; In general, the main issue in my opinion is knowing the market, and that helped us get out of the valley. Of course, it should be emphasized that our company is very unique in terms of human resources and these successes are the result of collective work.

What were your human resource challenges?

Almost all Iranian companies have a challenge in this regard; The reason is the terrible economic conditions of the country and the inflation rate, so no matter how good a legal offer we give to individuals, they may still reject it due to non-compliance with income and expenditure. Our first problem is the ability of the employer and the companies to pay, because the higher the salary, the less it helps the employee, and this leads to despair and passivity; Especially since we are dealing with specialized people, and although the workforce is large, the main problem is the instability of the employees; Experts often do not know their plans for the next year because they may want to immigrate. We are looking for a workforce that, in addition to expertise, is ethical and stable so that the company can offer him better positions in this process.

In my opinion, this issue is completely related to the economic situation of the country, because it leads to the inability to plan, and this makes even our company, despite being very rich in human resources, in trouble. In the meantime, a large number of specialists have migrated, and we are trying to cooperate with the human resources who have remained in the country and intend to progress here, in such a way that we do not stand in this way, everyone in every direction is motivated. And interest works and we even deal with educational topics to keep the force in the organization. But in the end, because of the circumstances that I have described, the organization, no matter how much it tries to do in this direction, still some people stop cooperating. Of course, we do not have many companies in the field of high-tech in our country, and people who specialize in this field do not have many options; Therefore, we always try to offer good cooperation offers to people in this field.

What services does Liujon offer?

Liogen currently has three sets, which operate interdependently, one of which is Liogen Pharmed. All of these collections are active in the field of biotechnology. Liogen Pharmed works in the field of “quality control of biological products” and does not only include drugs; For example, QC works on most of the vaccines we currently do; The other section also deals with products such as wound dressings or corona diagnostic kits, medication quality control kits; We are one of the few companies that have approved Corona diagnostic kits. Other services include micro-services and personalization to companies and researchers. In this regard, we have service packages including various tests for specific companies and products. We also provide a number of micro-services to companies, such as device rental, personalization of tests according to international authorities, and so on.

In between Bomix Accelerator We started in the form of a startup studio where people from zero level, even without having an idea and a team, enter the accelerator and take the idea from us (according to the gaps in the industry as well as world trends); After these steps, we will attract investors for the teams. We are currently going through the second period of attracting people and the first period is in the investment stage. Sina Clone Group offers services and products in biology / molecular biology or products in the field of biotechnology such as kits, raw materials, etc. and also has a good sales network throughout Iran.

Health businesses have many problems in obtaining licenses; What was your challenge in this regard?

The FDA is often slow and lacks agility; The Ministry of Health has also created so many conflicts of interest in its system that it has created the same problem; The Ministry of Health does not even know whether it is a regulatory body or a consumer and importer. Therefore, it is necessary to outsource these responsibilities to private companies and non-governmental organizations and be the sole supervisor. The biggest problem is that the Food and Drug Administration is very slow, but on the other hand, when we sit at the foot of their pain and heartache, we realize that they are right, because there are so many responsibilities on the organization and the ability to take care of everyone. They do not have them. The biggest disadvantage for a company is to choose an inspector who does not have enough information about the company’s performance because this causes irrational talk during the evaluation and the company does not find a solution. In general, the biggest problem is the slow performance of the Food and Drug Administration; It took us about 3 years to get our license; Because we first had to prove why this permit is needed for the country? It takes a long time to justify this. On the other hand, during the steps, until the door to get acquainted with a boss is opened, a change of position occurs and everything returns to its first step and there is no stability. In my opinion, when an organization has a lot of different tasks, it does not have the opportunity to focus and study specifically on the subject of the company’s work to give logical opinions. Even for the Corona diagnostic kit, which was an emergency in the country, it took 6 months to 1 year to license it. While the slogan of the government is to support national production every year, unfortunately, there is no other shelter for knowledge-based companies other than the Vice President for Science and Technology.

Is Bomix just a startup studio?

Bomix is ​​not necessarily a startup studio; It is also an accelerator, meaning that if a team with an idea comes to Bomix, that team will be helped.

What teams come to you with what conditions and what services do you provide?

In the form of acceleration, any team that knows us comes to us, and the first thing we ask of them is to write down the idea because most of the people who come to us have the idea in their head. Our assistance to these teams depends on their needs; These needs can range from licensing to consulting, product line and investment. If the plan appeals to us, we diagnose it to meet its needs and then announce each other’s commitments, and in many cases the initial investment is made by ourselves. In line with Startup Studio, we hold a one-day event, during which we advertise and fully explain our performance; People then enroll in courses that often cost very little. After that, we enter phase zero, in the form of which we hold various classes in the fields of management, entrepreneurship, and introduce people to the projects; Then people become teams, and we help them with team building and psychology, and then the teams choose the project around the ideas and start working in “Phase One”; “Phase One” is free, but we get a legal commitment and guarantee that people will not stop cooperating and if they do not cooperate, they will have to pay for the course. Phase one takes one to one and a half years, and we often try to reach the prototype in this phase, and at the end there is a risky investment, and in the meantime, Sydmani invests in Bomix, which costs about 50 It is up to 100 million Tomans. After investing, we enter Phase 2, where the main goal is to reach a licensed and marketable prototype.

How do you see the future of biotechnology?

The high-tech situation is the result of what is happening in the world, and these events often reach countries like Iran with a delay of 5 to 10 years; The future of the world is in the combination of artificial intelligence, IT and biotechnology, and everything is in the combination of these three; As in the period of the “Industrial Revolution” and we have grown to some extent in this field, but from now on, wise humans decide to create superhumans; As it is now possible for you to have an artificial hand through artificial intelligence and command it to contract and expand, or give signals with your eyes for something to happen, so biotech can be used in stem cells and reconstructions. Can produce meat, skin, heart and اج components; So all the issues in the future will be from different fields of diagnosis, medicine, desire for human immortality and a combination of these technologies, and the rest will serve these technologies.

The last word

I thank all the people who have a goal and a move forward because they have a positive outlook and help the country’s ecosystem. I think our lives are a series of small but purposeful steps that all lead to big things, so I advise young people to set short-term goals for themselves and be on the move to get involved in decision making. Because progress is made through experience, and good things definitely happen to them.