BU/MIT team, Novophage, wins top business plan competition: 2009 Global Moot Corp Competition
The startup Novophage Therapeutics, this year’s winners of the Boston University Institute for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (ITEC), has also taken the top prize at the 2009 Global Moot Corp Competition. The 2009 Global Moot Corp Competition, held at the University of Austin at Texas, is known as being a top business plan competition and is one of the largest in the world. The competition sponsors note:
A company hoping to significantly slow the onset of antibiotic resistance claimed the grand prize at the 26th annual Global Moot Corp Competition held at the University of Texas at Austin on Saturday, May 9. Novophage Therapeutics from Boston University and MIT beat out 39 teams from top MBA programs around the world to claim the Global Champion prize.
Novophage Therapeutics will introduce a new biological therapy that slows the onset of antibiotic resistance and increases the efficacy of current antibiotics. The company plans to offer efficacious treatments for highly antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, allowing infectious disease doctors to better manage the fight against multidrug-resistant strains through co-administration of engineered bacteriophages with current clinical standards of care. Team members include Timothy Lu, Tanguy Chau, Michael Koeris and Ann DeWitt.
Inc., the resource for entrepreneurial news, also reports about the Boston University team’s triumph,
With its patented new therapy to fight antibiotic resistance, a team from Boston University took top honors at the 26th annual Global Moot Corp, considered one of the world’s largest business-plan competitions.
Novophage Theraputics placed first at the event, which was held May 6-9 at the University of Texas in Austin and brought together 40 teams from MBA programs around the world…The winning start-up is a joint effort by Boston University and MIT PhD students Michael Koeris, Timothy Lu, and Tanguy Chau, who worked together to develop the technology, along with MBA student Ann DeWitt, who works on business development.
Despite the acclaim they received at Moot Corp, the founders said it wasn’t until relatively recently that they realized they had a patentable technology they could build a business on.
“We never really put two and two together, but about half a year ago we started thinking this would be a great idea, put a business plan together, and wound up invited to Moot Corp,” Koeris said.
Right now, the company consists of just the three technologists and DeWitt, but the founders say they have ambitious plans. Koeris said he finds the transition from the lab to the business world exhilarating.
“It’s more what I’ve always wanted to do,” Koeris said.
From the article “Biotech Start-up Wins Global Moot Corp,” by Kelly Faircloth, Inc., May 19, 2009
