From Scientist to Entrepreneur

AUTHOR: Lachlan Colquhoun   DATE: 20.04.06   ISSUE 1, 2006

The Sydney-based company, which is developing non-invasive tests for diabetes and also prostate cancer, was named on this year’s BRW Upstarts list of Australia’s fastest growing young companies – an achievement which underlines Walsh’s transformation from scientist to entrepreneur.

“The commercialisation of research in universities is not always done well, so I saw an opportunity to take the technology platform I’d developed and apply it to some major diseases – such as diabetes and prostate cancer,” says Walsh.

“My vision was for a business that had some degree of flexibility so we could move fairly quickly and build good linkages with research institutes and other businesses to allow us to box above our weight.”

"We are addressing major health issues and wanting to make a difference, but we are a company where people enjoy being together and having fun together."

Photo: Dr. Brad Walsh

Walsh’s early career was based in academia and the public health system. After a Ph.D looking at aspects of asthma and allergy, he spent time at Macquarie University researching milk and egg allergies.

From there it was to St. Vincents Hospital in Sydney for eight years, where he worked in a group looking at rheumatoid arthritis. He left there to manage the first national research facility studying proteins and it was in this role that Walsh had his first experience of management, which led to his contact with AGSM.

“I was building up my management skills but with really no formal training, and I wasn’t in a position to go and start an MBA because I was focussed on starting my own company and finding the investors,” says Walsh.

The solution was an AGSM Executive Program course for managers in 2001, which he followed up with a later course in negotiation, which came in very useful when talking with potential investors in the US in 2002.

“Kicking off a start up business in Australia as a biotech really means that you need some global partners, so we started off with a US company called Waters Corporation, so all of a sudden I was dealing with people from a US$14 billion company,” says Walsh.

“It’s a bit daunting when you start in this area to talk to these guys and get on the phone with them and try to negotiate a deal, so an overview of negotiation skills from the course was extremely valuable.”

After several hiccups, including the sudden death of Waters’ main negotiator, the US firm took a stake in Minomic, which started trading in July 2003.

"Our challenge is how to work smart, how to achieve and compete on the world stage."

Since then, the headcount has gone from two people to 12, and revenues this year are expected to top $1 million.

The company’s model is to offer its research capabilities to a range of companies and institutions – such as CSL Ltd. and Sydney’s Prince of Wales Hospital – while continuing to work on its major projects, the non-invasive urine-based test for type 2 diabetes, and a similar project in the area of prostate cancer.

“I think we’ve managed to establish some credibility in the market, which is so important for a biotech,” says Walsh.

“Our challenge is how to work smart and how to achieve and compete on the world stage. This is very much a global business we are in, and the way you do it is to build linkages, and that’s starting to happen now.”

The major pay-day for Minomic will come if the company can succeed in developing its diabetes test for launch on the market. As a non-invasive test, the product has the potential to reach the mass-market through sales in chemists.

“Once people hit middle age it’s probably time for them to start testing themselves for diabetes every two years, so the market is very big. It is almost a wellness market rather than a sickness market,” says Walsh.

“But we’ve seen that being a one-horse show is never a good thing for a biotech, so that’s why we are doing project work to maintain our cash flow and also working in the area of prostate and bladder cancer.”

For the future, Walsh can see the possibility of spinning off two separate companies out of Minomic, each of them containing the Intellectual Property from the diabetes and cancer research. At that point, he can forsee a partnering deal with a major manufacturer who would market and commercialise the product.

“Another option could be a trade sale, but what we are looking at is something that realises the value of those particular areas but leaves us with a vehicle to go on with other things,” says Walsh.

“It may even be that we go to the market with an IPO, but if we do that it will be when we have a sales record to offer, and not when most biotechs do - when they have only blue sky.”

On his own transition, Walsh says he “absolutely loves” his role as chief executive at Minomic.

Walsh enjoys the creation of a company culture which he describes as “people having fun.”

“I’m really getting a buzz out of putting the company in front of some really significant people in the global investment community,” he says.

“It means the scientist gets less air time now but that’s a necessary part of getting out there and forming the networks and finding the opportunities.”

Walsh also enjoys the creation of a company culture which he describes as “people having fun.”

“Yes we are addressing major health issues and wanting to make a difference but we are a company where people enjoy being together and having fun together,” he says.

“A bunch of us went and had a surf lesson a few weeks ago, so we are about blending our work with our lifestyle and enjoying ourselves.”