Biohacker Andrew Hessel's open-source drug company aims to make bespoke cancer-fighting viruses using DNA printers – paid for by a Netflix-style subscription
You worked in big pharma. Why did you leave?
More than a decade ago, I was with a large biopharma company where I learned first-hand that drug development wasn't really working. Putting tremendous resources into R&D didn't necessarily produce a lot of results, even though we used the most advanced genetic technologies and the best people. I decided to re-evaluate my career, and spent a year on the beach in Thailand thinking about what to do next.
Did inspiration hit you regarding a better way to make drugs?
I had seen technology for printing DNA as far back as 1998 and I thought "this is the answer", because it meant you didn't need to be in a lab to do genetic engineering. You can do the design on computers – ...
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