Biotech company funds innovative cancer treatment using Ideals

Overview 

Hemispherian is an innovative Norwegian biotech company that specializes in developing new drug therapies for aggressive cancers of the brain and nervous system.

In 2022, the company set out to raise more capital to continue work on its most promising compound – a new drug to target the most common type of malignant brain tumor.

Needing a secure way of communicating with potential investors, the team began researching tools that would allow them to exchange highly confidential information quickly and securely. 

CEO Zeno Albisser says he chose Ideals because it’s “fast, responsive, and easy to navigate.”

Context 

Founded in 2020 to take a different approach to targeted cancer treatments, Oslo-based Hemispherian is developing new drugs harnessing the natural DNA damage response to treat cancer, improving outcomes for patients.

By 2022, the company’s most promising line was a drug to treat glioblastomas: fast-growing and invasive brain tumors with low survival rates. The company was also developing a diagnostic tool to help select the patients that would benefit most from this therapy.

The Hemispherian team needed funding to continue their work, so looked for a secure solution to handle data sharing with potential investors.

Zeno approached Ideals as his previous virtual data room (VDR) provider had failed to meet his requirements for speed and user experience. “When I upload documents I need them to be immediately available,” he explains. “And it’s also important that investors can view information easily, with fast and responsive scrolling and no delays.”

Key challenges 

Given the sensitivity of the company’s work, Hemispherian needed a solution that offered total security for highly confidential information. However, their key priorities were speed and the user experience for his team and their investors.

“If you’re trying to scroll through a document and it lags, that’s very uncomfortable to read and inconvenient for users,” explains Zeno. “You don’t want to annoy your investors!” 

Their critical requirements were:

• Rapid uploading of documents (mainly PDFs)
• Speedy document processing for users
• Security features, such as watermarks
• Advanced search options
• Excellent customer support

Solutions 

With Ideals, the Hemispherian team found it easy to set up a data room and populate it. “Uploading, downloading and managing files is simple,” says Zeno. 

The team could also:

• Invite users, knowing they would gain immediate access
• Watermark documents for security
• Easily find different files using the search options

Zeno was impressed: “With Ideals, we don’t have any problems. It’s fast, responsive, and easy to navigate.” 

The future 

The team at Hemispherian are working to secure the necessary funding to bring their glioblastoma drug and diagnostic tool to market. It’s currently in late-stage preclinical development and the team plans to conduct clinical trials with patients by the end of 2024. 

Zeno is very happy with his decision to use Ideals. When asked for his three favorite things about the VDR, he lists:

1. Simplicity of uploading and downloading documents
2. Automatic indexing that makes the process faster and more efficient
3. Intuitive search features

Asked to sum up his company’s experience with Ideals, he says: “It’s a solution I don’t have to think about. It just works.”