US biotech firm opens Philippines office

MANILA, Philippines — US-based biotech firm InterVenn Biosciences has opened a state-of-the-art office in the Philippines as it banks on the available talent in the country.

While the company is headquartered in the Bay Area of San Francisco, California, OInVenn Biosciences Philippines launched its state-of-the-art office at the Ortigas Center in Pasig on Friday as it emphasized that the team that maintains its artificial intelligence (AI) is made up mostly of Filipinos residing in the Philippines.

“InterVenn has made significant progress in early cancer detection thanks to the brilliant and dedicated Filipino engineers we have on board,” InterVenn co-founder and chief executive officer Aldo Carrascoso said.

“They help build and maintain the front end, back end, and cloud infrastructure of our next-generation liquid biopsy, as we all work together to reach a world where no one should ever be blindsided by disease,” Carrascoso added.

InterVenn has developed a powerful AI-enabled software platform that can perform glycoproteomic analysis and can work on a variety of mass spectrometry instruments to create high-throughput, automated analysis solutions for both research and clinical applications.

The platform identifies patient-specific cancer biomarkers and uses those to develop liquid biopsy tests that can detect cancer and determine how well each patient will respond to available treatments.

The company said its Philippine office would continue to expand the local team’s roster of developers and engineers that form the backbone running the proprietary AI technology used in the firm’s research.

Over 100 Filipinos are currently working on the software engineering stream of InterVenn, with plans to recruit more local talent as they further expand their business in the region.

“One hundred percent of our software is proudly Philippine-made. We started this venture with the goal of not just having the means of finding a cure and early detection for cancer, but to also showcase to everyone that we Filipinos can achieve this on a global scale,” InterVenn Philippines general manager Axel Kornerup said.

Kornerup said that the company has also been collaborating with local oncologists in running its InterVenn Ovarian Cancer Liquid Biopsy (VOCAL) testing program.

With its new facilities and team in the country, the biotech company said it has been aggressive in its recruitment and expansion to support the development and commercialization of its Dawn product, a blood-based test aimed at helping physicians appropriately match cancer patients to the best possible immuno-oncology therapy.

It added that the application of the product on other tumor types is continuously being studied.

“Our research is a major step towards a truly universal healthcare. We’re proud to be making these phenomenal developments in the Philippines, and we look forward to working with more local stakeholders in the future,” Carrascoso said.

Kornerup said that the Philippine office located at the Podium West Tower has a workforce of about 150 employees.

“But we are on pause. We were supposed to hire more personnel but being prudent because of the market situation globally, we are temporarily on hold. When things settle down and the market becomes more stable, we expect to increase more personnel,” Kornerup said.

While the Philippine office has a capacity of 250 employees, Kornerup said it could still expand to 400 employees as it can do scheduling.