When people ask me what has fueled the rapid growth of Greater Phoenix’s bioscience sector, I don’t start by talking about funding or facilities.
I talk about collaboration.
Throughout my career, I’ve had the opportunity to work across clinical research, healthcare innovation, venture investing and biotechnology. I’ve seen what happens when researchers, physicians, entrepreneurs, investors and health systems work together, and what happens when they don’t. Today, as founder and CEO of PriZm Therapeutics and chief innovation officer at HonorHealth, I believe Arizona’s greatest competitive advantage isn’t any one institution. It’s an ecosystem where those groups are increasingly connected and committed to translating innovation into better patient care.
To me, healthcare innovation is a team sport. The best ideas don’t change lives until researchers, clinicians, entrepreneurs and industry come together to move them from discovery to patients.
That philosophy led me to found PriZm Therapeutics in 2020.
PriZm is a late-stage clinical biotechnology company focused on developing therapies for ultra-rare pediatric diseases, beginning with Allan-Herndon-Dudley Syndrome (AHDS), also known as MCT8 deficiency. Affecting fewer than 500 patients in the United States, the disease has historically received little commercial attention despite its profound impact on children and their families.
I saw an opportunity to prove that patient need, not market size, should determine where innovation happens, and to help move promising science from the laboratory to the families who need it most.
To launch PriZm, I took an unpaid sabbatical from HonorHealth, invested my own resources and assembled a multidisciplinary team of clinicians, scientists and drug development leaders to advance a therapy many others had overlooked. In an industry where most drug development programs fail, we adopted a disciplined, capital-efficient approach focused on translating promising science into meaningful patient outcomes.
Our mission is simple: to ensure families facing the rarest diseases aren’t left behind simply because the patient population is small.
Our lead program, SRW101, licensed from research conducted at the University of Miami and the University of Chicago, reflects that philosophy. We focused on bridging the gap between academic discovery and commercialization through clinical development, regulatory planning and strategic partnerships. That strategy ultimately led to the acquisition of SRW101 by a global private pharmaceutical company, creating a pathway toward broader patient access while validating our development model.
That experience reinforced something I’ve come to believe throughout my career: Innovation succeeds when organizations stop thinking in silos.
The same lesson shapes my work at HonorHealth. As chief innovation officer, I focus on identifying emerging innovations, connecting entrepreneurs with clinicians and helping accelerate solutions that improve patient care. My experience growing the HonorHealth Research Institute and establishing the HonorHealth Innovation Fund reinforced the importance of creating pathways that allow promising ideas to move from laboratories into hospitals, clinics and, ultimately, patients’ lives.
Working inside a health system gives me a unique perspective. I see unmet clinical needs every day while also seeing remarkable innovations emerging from universities and startups. The opportunity is creating stronger connections between those worlds so great science doesn’t stop at publication; it reaches patients.
That’s why I’m optimistic about Greater Phoenix’s future.
The Now & Future Biosciences Hub
Our region has assembled the essential ingredients of a thriving bioscience economy: outstanding health systems, growing research institutions, entrepreneurial leadership, increasing investment and a culture that values partnership. Together, those strengths are attracting companies while creating an environment where scientific discoveries can become new therapies, technologies and businesses.
I believe continued investment in research commercialization, talent development, early-stage capital and public-private partnerships will further strengthen Arizona’s position as a national bioscience hub. I’m fortunate to contribute to that effort not only through PriZm and HonorHealth, but also as co-chair of the Healthcare Innovation Council for the Greater Phoenix Economic Council and as a member of the AZBio Board of Directors. Those roles give me the opportunity to help strengthen connections across Arizona’s life sciences community.
To me, the goal isn’t simply to create more biotech companies. It’s to build an ecosystem where discoveries become therapies, therapies become businesses and those businesses improve lives while strengthening Arizona’s economy.
Whether I’m advancing therapies through PriZm Therapeutics, leading innovation at HonorHealth or supporting Arizona’s bioscience community, I see the same mission: translating innovation into impact so more discoveries reach the people who need them most.
Kiran Avancha, Ph.D.
Founder
PriZm Therapeutics
Chief Innovation Officer
HonorHealth
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