Introducing Angel Alberich-Bayarri, CEO of Quibim
Dr Gordon Euller, our General Partner leading APEX Medical, recently chatted to Angel Alberich-Bayarri, Co-Founder and CEO of Quibim, to learn more about the Valencia-based company’s work in imaging data and its mission to turn imaging into a catalyst for precision medicine.
Tell me more about Quibim and your founder story
Quibim specialises in developing innovative tools for analysing medical images using AI techniques in oncology, immunology and neurology.
We’re a Valencia-based company with a mission to improve patient outcomes by unlocking the potential of imaging data. We don’t want just to understand the human body but link our findings with patient outcomes to become the reference company in predictive models.
Between 2002 and 2007, I studied Telecommunications Engineering — a combination of electronics, engineering and computer science — but became increasingly interested in engineering applications to the health sector. I started looking for doctors in Valencia who were collaborating with engineers, and that’s how I met my co-founder, Luis Marti-Bonmati, a radiologist working at the hospital Quiron of Valencia and an expert in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
We began exchanging ideas and, from 2007 to 2014, spent seven years of intense research together in computational imaging, MRI, computerised tomography (CT), and quantitative imaging biomarkers in the international landscape. We published many papers investigating techniques for various diseases, such as osteoporosis, fatty liver disease, Alzheimer’s and cancer.
It was during this time that we recognised that when family members, parents and friends underwent health-related difficulties, many standard hospital procedures were not yet based on imaging technology. In 2012, this sparked the idea of establishing a company where we could develop and implement these technologies ourselves — leading to the start of Quibim.
How has the company evolved since launching?
For many years, between 2015 and 2020, we focused on tech, research and improving our algorithms. Over time our initial focus on quantifying imaging biomarkers has prevailed, moving away from using artificial intelligence (AI) to detect organs and improve radiology workflow only (mainstream in the AI-medical imaging space today) to putting the focus on transforming imaging data into actionable predictions.
We joined a local accelerator program called Lanzadera, promoted by renowned Spanish businessman Juan Roig. In the following years, we also achieved important milestones, including becoming certified with CE class IIb, ISO 13485 and ISO 27001. Thanks to a grant from the European Commission, we were able to design and develop our first-generation product roadmap, Quibim Precision®, and we also gained FDA 510k clearance for our product QP-Prostate®.
But around 2020 and with regulatory clearances in place, we recognised the importance of not only having engineers and research but the need to take a more commercial approach.
What are the advantages of quantitative imaging biomarkers, and how does your technology help in healthcare?
Imaging is at every single step of a disease, including detection, diagnosis, treatment, response monitoring, and it can even help identify relapse in patients.
Quantitative imaging biomarkers are measurements that can be taken from medical images and used to determine whether a disease is present, how severe it is, or how far along it is in its progression.
These biomarkers have several benefits, including being unbiased and repeatable, enabling accurate and consistent readings. Additionally, they are specific - improving diagnostic accuracy and sensitive - enabling early disease diagnosis and tracking of disease progression.
Furthermore, because quantitative imaging biomarkers are non-invasive, there is less chance of problems, and patients are more comfortable. They can be carried out using readily accessible imaging modalities and are typically also cost-effective. They can also be automated and used on huge databases, which helps with research and clinical investigations.
Can you share insight into some of the exciting projects you’ve worked on?
We work with biopharma companies and academia, with excellent partnerships so far with organisations including Merck, Novartis, Philips, Microsoft and Janssen.
We’ve also participated in numerous research projects funded by the European Commission over the past five years, including studies into prostate and breast cancers, with our software platform becoming the backbone of many of these projects.
One of the main ones, the European Federation for Cancer Images (EUCAIM), began recently and aims to be Europe’s most prominent medical image biobank. This project is a pan-cancer initiative that analyses commonalities between different types of tumours to develop more effective cancer therapies.
The project has 75 partners in addition to us and aims to create a digital infrastructure to store and analyse cancer images without any patient-identifiable data. This project is in line with our company’s main objective: to turn imaging into a catalyst for precision medicine.
One of the more sensitive projects that we all feel proud of is our work in neuroblastoma, a rare cancer with a very low incidence (two cases per million) that affects children. Our imaging in virtual biopsies has helped to characterise why some patients do well with certain types of treatment and why other patients do not respond to a specific therapy. Essentially, it’s about identifying subtypes within that disease and predicting patient outcomes.
What’s it like to work at Quibim?
I’ve always wanted to make sure the team has a common vision, which is why very early on, I decided to hire a Chief of People & Culture. It is still one of my best-ever hires. We have an excellent culture right now, and there is a great atmosphere at Quibim.
We foster a familial atmosphere where each team member strives to bring out the best in one another in our pursuit of advancing precision medicine. Our culture centres around innovation, courage, trust, and integrity, and we all share a common goal of improving healthcare and making a positive impact on people’s lives.
We prioritise proactivity, clear communication, and transparency in order to effectively achieve our objectives.
We operate within the framework of ‘Just Culture’, which is quite common in air traffic control but less so in startups or scaleup companies. This approach values and recognises excellence and personal integrity and is grounded in the principles of systems engineering. It acknowledges that mistakes often stem from flawed organisational structures rather than being solely the fault of any one individual.
In a Just Culture, the focus is on understanding ‘what went wrong?’ rather than placing blame on any specific person after an incident. This means we can achieve a more organised way of working and learn how to stop these errors from happening in the future.
We like to say that integrity is an array of values that guides all of our actions and decisions. It shapes the way we work and conducts ourselves both as individuals and as a team. We are committed to always doing the right thing, for the right reasons, in the right way, and this principle of truth-telling is at the heart of our organisation.
Why did you choose to work with the APEX Ventures team?
We established a brand in radiomics, but to be able to move the brand forward and grow the company, we needed to interact with other ‘omics’ over the next few years so we can evolve in the precision medicine space.
During the pandemic, while we were raising for our seed round, I had the opportunity to speak with you, Gordon, and I couldn’t believe how much you understood about everything Quibim! Usually, that is not the way it works; we have to explain it from different angles for non-healthcare-related people to understand.
We liked the idea of having APEX Ventures on board because it would bring value and strong strategic support beyond the funding. So far, it has been an outstanding story, and I think both we and APEX Ventures are happy with the relationship.
It’s less about the funds that have been contributed to our company from a financial side; it’s more about the journey together and the added value, right? That’s why I’m very happy about this relationship and our level of interaction.
How have you used the funding?
It’s very important to look at how we can create diagnostics and tools that can be used to indicate treatments — this is our ambition. Today genomics has a high level of actionability to indicate new therapies. I would like to reach a similar level of actionability in imaging.
Thanks to the funding received, we have moved from the first generation of our products to the second-generation product roadmap, which we have split into two main areas:
· Life Sciences: partnering with biopharma and RWE companies for the discovery of new imaging biomarkers and models, as well as deploying their QP-Discovery® platform to deliver clinical trials and data management solutions.
· Providers: delivering best-in-class radiology software as a SaaS model (medical devices) with the products QP-Prostate®, QP-Brain®, and the upcoming QP-Liver®, QP-Breast® and QP-Lung®.
We have also been focusing on increasing our team — from 32 people in 2020 to 75 in 2022. So far, we have been able to open offices in New York, Cambridge (UK) and Madrid/Barcelona.
In addition, we have used the funding to strengthen the Quibim brand and our brand positioning.
What’s coming up in 2023 for Quibim?
Quibim is now pushing to become the reference medical imaging company in personalised medicine.
The number of partnerships in life sciences and real-world evidence (RWE) is growing significantly. This year Quibim will announce great news about data access, being one of the leading partners of EUCAIM and will start bringing AI models to the world focused on transforming imaging data into actionable predictions, linking imaging features with patient outcomes.
The company expects to multiply revenue fourfold in 2023, and we also plan to grow the team to around 150 people by the end of 2024. A big part of that growth will be in the US and the UK.
We also expect to become more and more international, especially in the markets where we are growing. New FDA clearances will be also achieved during this year, so all set to become a record year for the company.
