Why We Invested in IVIVA
Amazing founders + opportunity to transform patient lives + disrupt a $100B market
Reason #1: Amazing founders and team
Though that is always reason #1! IVIVA was founded in 2013 by Harvard Professor Harald Ott with the mission to eliminate the need for organ transplants. Founder, Research Professor and Mass General Hospital surgeon Harald Ott (an uber rare “triple threat” academic) knows this problem intimately though his clinical practice and identified maturing innovations in stem cell research, microfluidics and 3D printing that could be combined to recapitulate organ function into implantable units. Dr. Ott swiftly convinced Brock Reeve, the Executive Director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, to assume the CEO post bringing with him decades of experience in the industry. The IVIVA team has de-risked the tech with millions in grant funding and equity capital including Bold Capital and WI Harper, both coinvestors in other Prime Movers Lab companies. They have built out a great team, and surround themselves top tier supporters and great partners (under NDA’s so we’ll just leave that there).
Reason #2: Massive (like seriously massive) unmet medical need
Each year, kidney disease kills more people than breast or prostate cancer. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) describes the gradual loss of kidney function and has affects approximately 14% of the US population. The kidney filters wastes from blood and excretes these in urine. When this sewage system malfunctions, quality of life rapidly deteriorates eventually ending in death for many. In stage 4 CKD or end stage renal disease (ESRD), patients can wait on organ transplant lists for years while undergoing repeated dialysis.
Organ shortages are well known and patients, providers and payers are all quite unhappy with standard of care. For ESRD patients, transplantation plus lifelong immunosuppression is the only hope of returning to a “normal” life. However, fewer than 20% on transplant lists actually find a donor; in the US there are about 100,000 people waiting for kidneys, and ~19,000 transplants each year. Providers have little interest in setting their patients up for that, but have no other options. And Payers, well they bear the brunt of the costs associated with those wait lists and other auxiliary costs. In the US, a kidney transplant costs ~$450,000 per and the average annual cost for hemodialysis is ~$90,000 per patient.
In addition to the potential to literally transform the life of patients (reason enough), this ties out to a $100B market today that is segmented into dialysis (~80%) and transplantation (~20%) that has not seen innovation for decades. And the sweetener for us, the dialysis segment only exists because transplantation is massively supply constrained presenting an enormous opportunity for disruption. Emerging competitors are many and approaching it from diverse tacks — too many to list but they span portable dialysis, 3D printing organs, devices, stem cell, etc.
Reason #3: Disruptive, timely solution with solid experimental proof-of-concept
The IVIVA approach is unique in its hybrid style: part cells, part microfluidics, part surgically implanted biocompatible device that combines the advantages of each. The tradeoff they face is a more complicated regulatory path; the “dreaded” combination product pathway, but the management team’s experience makes this a very manageable risk. This product design is a truly self-sustained biologic device, without need for mechanical stimulation, dialysate, or other external support; put simply this is the holy grail.
It’s the cells that do the work and your body supplies the rest, we were all born with a dialysis system after all and IVIVA is just making “spare parts” from the original system. They have preliminary, but stunning, in vitro and in vivo data sets and remember the kidney is one of the most complex organs in our bodies. The team’s vision is to expand the platform to additional organ types (e.g. pancreas, lung, intestine, etc., some of which also have in vitro and in vivo data) each potentially ticking on additional multi-billion dollar market opportunities.
In summary, this is what the venture capital industry exists for, this is what bio-entrepreneurially minded people dream of: massive unmet medical need (potential to transform the patient’s life while killing an $80b market) matched with a stunning team, strong PoC data and solid plans. This was a slam dunk decision for us and we are proud to be joining the journey. Thank you Harald and Brock for the pleasure and privilege.
Prime Movers Lab invests in breakthrough scientific startups founded by Prime Movers, the inventors who transform billions of lives. We invest in companies reinventing energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, human augmentation, and agriculture.
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