Avigen: Immunotherapy validation and selection

The need:

Immunotherapy uses the body’s immune system to fight diseases like cancer. It works by enhancing the immune system’s natural ability to recognise and attack cancer cells. However, finding the right immune cell candidates is challenging and 83% of cellular immunotherapies fail to translate from in-vitro to in-vivo.

Avigen, a Contract Research Organisation, spun out from Imperial College London, have developed a platform allowing biopharmaceutical companies to identify the most promising leads from millions of potential candidates to accelerate their immunotherapy breakthroughs.

Project challenge:

Avigen wanted help identifying which customers to target as a priority, a review of their competitors to highlight any gaps in their service offerings, and support refining their value proposition to support customer engagement. Avigen were successful in their Innovate UK Business Growth grant application, and chose Medipex as their Research & Technology Organisation (RTO).

How did Medipex help?

Medipex identified potential customers, competitors and partners for Avigen, creating a directory of over 300 organisations. Each company was individually reviewed to confirm it was relevant and active, with websites examined in detail to capture up-to-date information on pipeline stage, contact details and budget tier. Scientific expertise was applied to assess relevance and strategic fit, resulting in a complete and current directory that could not have been generated through AI-based approaches.

Medipex reviewed Avigen’s existing competitors and identified candidate competitors, providing additional detail, highlighting gaps in their service offerings and outlining Avigen’s ability to address these gaps.

Inefficiencies of current competitors were investigated, and research was conducted into barriers that may prevent customers from transitioning to avidity-based systems, helping to inform strategies to overcome these challenges and refine Avigen’s value proposition.

Impact:

This work provided Avigen with a clear, evidence-based view of its commercial landscape. The curated directory enabled Avigen to identify and prioritise high value target customers across the UK and Europe with confidence. The competitor and market analysis clarified where Avigen’s platform delivers unique value. Together, these insights supported refinement of Avigen’s value proposition and messaging, helping the team communicate more effectively with prospective customers and position the platform clearly against existing alternatives.

Client testimonial:

"Medipex did an excellent job supporting Avigen’s commercial strategy. Their thorough market and competitor analysis gave us clear, practical insight into where our platform adds the most value and which customers to prioritise. The work directly helped us refine our value proposition and engage more effectively with prospective partners. Medipex demonstrated a high level of professionalism, genuine enthusiasm for our project, and delivered high-quality work in a timely manner throughout the engagement."

Tobias Gamper, Co-founder & CEO and Dr Neelima KC, Co-founder & COO