3 Questions for Evidentic Founder Christian Schmitz – »With Evidentic, I Have Developed a Business Model That no One Has Tried Before.«

Evidentic procures active ingredients that researchers in industry and at universities need for medical progress. What types of active ingredients do you focus on?

There are around 60,0000 registered drugs in Germany. We concentrate on large biomolecules, in particular monoclonal antibodies. Of the approximately 250 approved antibodies in Germany, we offer 90. Our best-selling active ingredient is the antibody Trastuzumab, which is contained in the drug Herceptin, among others. This binds to the surface of breast cancer cells and prevents their growth. We also offer around 15 antibody conjugates. These are specific antibodies that are loaded with toxic substances, for example to destroy cancer cells from the inside.

Our customers purchase these active ingredients from us to reproduce or modify them. They analyze them in detail in the lab, similar to the way a car manufacturer might examine a new model from a competitor. This enables them to launch their own version of the active ingredient once the patent protection for the original drug has expired. When I founded Evidentic eight years ago, my aim was to help pharmaceutical companies to make such cost-effective generics – known as biosimilars – available more quickly. Our second customer group are companies that use the active ingredients to develop new drugs. They modify the molecules of approved drugs, change their effect and test them on diseased cells.

As a molecular virologist, you have conducted research into cancer-causing viruses and the HI virus. Why do researchers often have problems obtaining the necessary active substances for their analyses?

To get medicines for research, scientists have to go to the pharmacy with a doctor’s prescription, just like patients. Some of our customers even report that they pick up leftover drugs from the trash at the hospital because the originals are so hard to come by. Evidentic breaks through the regulatory barrier that stands in the way of the research process, speeding it up. We make products accessible that are otherwise not freely available on the market. Our customers receive therapeutically highly effective substances that have been clinically tested on humans and bear a stamp of approval from the European Medicines Agency (EMA). They can easily buy small quantities of active therapeutic molecules from us without a prescription.

How does that work? We buy the medicines in liquid form with a wholesale license directly from the manufacturer. We then divide the contents into small doses, known as aliquots, which are filled into tubes. These are then stored in our refrigerators at minus 70 degrees Celsius. Each tube contains only a very small portion of the original drug with the corresponding therapeutic molecules. For the researchers, these very small quantities are completely sufficient – and they only have to pay 1000 euros instead of 15,000 euros for the original drug, for example. We treat all orders confidentially. This is important when a company is very early in the development phase of a new drug.

With Evidentic, I have developed a business model that no one has tried before. Splitting the drugs into aliquots is a very simple process, but the idea behind it is unique because it combines two business models: Wholesale and Laboratory. Evidentic is a pharmaceutical wholesaler that does not sell medicines but fills them and offers aliquots. Presently, we already have 550 customers worldwide and our marketing works exclusively by word of mouth.

You moved Evidentic from Berlin to the Potsdam Science Park in 2024. What advantages does the location offer for biotech companies like yours and what future plans do you have here?

We had a good start here. The Golm site management was very welcoming. Before that, we worjed in an office in Zehlendorf for seven years.  I chose the Potsdam Science Park because it is an attractive location for innovations with like-minded companies that enable many synergies. For example, we carried out a successful project with the Bioanalytics and Bioprocesses branch at the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology IZI-BB, in which we freeze-dried our therapeutic antibodies for the first time. This has the advantage that we no longer need to send them on dry ice at minus 70 degrees Celsius, but simply by envelope. In the future, we want to build up the expertise for this processing step in-house. This would result in a significant improvement in our environmental position.

At the moment, we are growing very organically and slowly. But I want to accelerate that. Here at the GO:IN 2 Innovation Center in the Potsdam Science Park, we have the best opportunities to expand and rent new offices and laboratory space. We want to increase our team from six to ten people over the next few years, build up marketing and sales and introduce freeze-drying and quality control. This will enable us to offer our active ingredients with ISO certification, giving us a larger sales market. My goal is to establish Evidentic as a reliable supplier of therapeutic molecules worldwide. At the Potsdam Science Park, we have exactly what we need for our growth in the coming years.

Further information can be found on the Evidentic website.

This blog and the projects carried out by Standortmanagement Golm GmbH (site management) in the Potsdam Science Park are co-financed by funds from the European Union and the federal state of Brandenburg.