Breakthru Medicine is a preclinical biotech developing multiple targeted therapeutics for oncology across a wide range of solid tumors. Breakthru’s team of veteran drug developers has collectively brought more than a dozen drugs to market and has advanced late-stage programs with the potential to transform outcomes for one of the most lethal forms of cancer. The team’s experience is Breakthru’s “superpower,” knowing when to keep pursuing a target, when to pivot, and when to eliminate a program — a capability that increases the likelihood of delivering meaningful new options to patients.
Biotech is increasingly using AI to discover new targets, predict protein structures, generate new molecules and identify novel biomarkers, among other tasks. Breakthru is using AI as well, but given its veteran team, we have a new term: “GreyI™,” which is the ability to recognize patterns based on years of experience in building compounds, seeing most fail and some succeed, and learning why this happened. It’s somewhat like raising a child — we can look back on years of successes and failures and imagine what we’d do better if given the chance again. Our team has those scars of experience that afford us the opportunity to do better with new chances to develop more effective and successful therapeutics. Importantly, as noted, we’re developing multiple platforms, so we’ll have multiple “shots on goal,” given that most new drugs fail at some point in their development journey.
Synergy in the Ecosystem
The biotech ecosystem in Arizona benefits a company like Breakthru, given that the state has aggressively supported biotech development, with the Phoenix Bioscience Core; world-class healthcare centers like Mayo Clinic Arizona, Banner Health and HonorHealth; and strong advocacy by AZBio. The state offers a collaborative, talent-rich environment that enables companies like Breakthru Medicine to build and scale efficiently while attracting top scientific and business talent. The strong integrated healthcare systems and population demographics in the Greater Phoenix area provide real opportunities for oncology clinical trials, while medical and biotech research at the University of Arizona and Arizona State University offers opportunities for collaboration.
The Now & Future Biosciences Hub
Over the past two-plus decades, Greater Phoenix has grown very intentionally as a biotech/bioscience center, starting with TGen, then the Phoenix Bioscience Core (where Breakthru has office space) and, most recently, the semiconductor buildout on the edges of the Metro area. While this great infrastructure is here, what’s missing is that new biotechs must look outside of Arizona for growth-stage capital. Breakthru has raised $80 million, yet none of those funds have originated in Arizona. Additionally, while ASU and U of A have great bioscience graduate programs, what is being done to retain those new grads once they’ve completed their training? The big biotech hubs pull many of those grads away. Local capital could help grow more successful local biotech companies, where those new grads could work.
Greater Phoenix biotechs have begun some strong national and international collaborations, and strengthening these will only build Phoenix as a biotech center. We aim to make Breakthru Medicine an Arizona success story that helps build our Phoenix biotech community.
Steven Potts, Ph.D., MBA
Co-Founder & CEO
Breakthru Medicine
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