Entrepreneurship
A Solution to Depression
Overview
Depression is a severe mental illness that has plagued humans for many years, and in extreme cases, caused innocent people to commit suicide. In 2020, according to information provided by the World Health Organization, more than 264 million people suffered from depression. The more shocking thing is that this number is still increasing. In the past ten years, the number of patients has increased by about 18%. In addition, more than 54 million people in China suffer from depression. Our team, Heartinker, is committed to solving this long-tolerated depression problem by creating new antidepressant drugs that are more effective than current drugs. We believe that by improving antidepressants, we can better alleviate depression and make the world happier.
Customer Needs
Industry pain points
For most antidepressants in the pharmaceutical market today, slow drug effects, significant side effects, and high recurrence rates are common problems. The current state of antidepressants is in a situation that is better than nothing, which means that patients with depression have to use these antidepressants with high side effects and slow efficacy. Furthermore, today's antidepressants have a limited scope of application and are treatment methods for moderate and severe depression patients. Society has not developed drugs that can help people with depression and treat mild depression.
Industrial Analysis
Now, there are many antidepressants on the market. The most commonly used antidepressants are SNRIs (5-HT and NE reuptake inhibitors), MAOIs (monoamine oxidase inhibitors), SSRIs (selective 5-HT reuptake inhibitors), and tca (tricyclic antidepressants). Among them, ssri and SNRI are the most used so far, accounting for about 70% of all clinical practice. Although these antidepressants are considered feasible, we at Heartinker found that in the brain, information like rain 5-HT and tca is transmitted from one nerve cell to another via chemical synapses (a small gap between cells). Cell's. The presynaptic cells that send messages release neurotransmitters including serotonin into this gap. Then, the neurotransmitters are recognized by receptors on the surface of the human body's cell surface after the receptors. The receptors are subjected to this stimulation Later. The signal is transferred instead. However, about 10% of the neurotransmitters are lost; the remaining 90% is released from the receptor and absorbed by the monoamine transporter into the sending presynaptic cells again. However, the inhibition of serotonin reuptake for SSRIs will cause serotonin to stay in the synaptic cleft longer than usual and may repeatedly stimulate the receptors of the recipient cells. This will lead to an increase in cross-synaptic signals with serotonin as the main neurotransmitter in the short term. In long-term administration, the occupancy rate of post-synaptic serotonin receptors will increase the signal to presynaptic neurons, and less serotonin will be synthesized and released. Then the level of serotonin in the synapse will drop and rise again, eventually leading to the down-regulation of the post-synaptic serotonin receptor. Therefore, any direct effects of SSRIs are restricted by their inability to cross the blood-brain barrier, which causes their effects on blood levels of serotonin to take several weeks to take effect. So we discovered this and decided to study and find compounds that can stimulate and increase the concentration of serotonin and the secretion of 5-HT.
Solution
In response to the above pain points, first, we established an in a vitro cell model. As a result, the success rate of screening positive compounds on this platform is relatively high. Therefore, more scientific and pharmaceutical personnel can obtain positive compounds with a higher success rate through our drug screening platform to develop antidepressant drugs with faster efficacy, fewer side effects, and a lower recurrence rate. Therefore, the core value of our first product is to provide a platform for pharmaceutical factories to screen out positive compounds with higher probability and efficiency.
In addition, we have established intestinal probiotics for patients with mild depression and those with depressive tendencies. Through the transformation and reorganization of Escherichia coli, it can secrete the catalytic enzyme to convert into 5-HT to reduce the symptoms of depression. This gene can be put into milk, yogurt, and other oral drinks or other health products to help people with mild depression and depression relieve symptoms and prevent depression. The core value of our second product is that it is suitable for any daily drink.
Drug Screening Platform
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of depression patients worldwide has reached 350 million, increasing year by year. According to a report by Allied Market Research, the global antidepressant drug market was US$14.11 billion in 2017. Various pharmaceutical companies are vying to seize the market, and our platform can help them have a higher probability of screening better compounds for the development of new drugs.
Intestinal probiotics
According to a study published in China Economic Review, 37.9% of people in China tend towards depression, reaching 390 million. More than 100 million people worldwide suffer from mild depression. Our products can help patients with mild depression recover without side effects and prevent depression for those with depression tendencies. Therefore, the target market of our products is very wide, and the number of people is also huge.
Potential of drug screening platform
We used a drug screening platform to screen for compounds that are helpful for the treatment of depression. This platform has a higher success rate for screening positive compounds. The number of people suffering from depression is increasing, and the frequency of depression drugs is also high. Under this demand, we can apply for a patent for this drug screening platform, which will help us make a profit. And this technology is ahead of the entire pharmaceutical market, so its potential to bring us benefits can be expected.
Probiotic Drinks-Depression Drug Competition
First of all, many depression drugs on the market now have significant side effects. We have developed a product containing intestinal probiotics. This product has no side effects on the body and affects regulating people's emotions. Through genetic modification, we construct the alcohol group Escherichia coli, secrete the catalytic enzyme, and convert it into 5ht, thereby reducing the symptoms of depression. Because this product is not an antidepressant in the traditional sense and has no side effects, it can be mainly used to prevent depression and relieve depression tendency.
Future Development Plan
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Promotion
Offline: To promote depression and our products through more charity shows, charity sales, community promotion, lectures, and other activities.
Online: Social media promotion: WeChat public account tweets, Weibo, ins, Xiaohongshu, and other platforms for online advertising (popularization of depression, experimental principles, product effects) Expand visibility and increase consumers.
Carry out some more in-depth cooperation with some related companies, such as pharmaceutical factories. Get more resources and expand our market.
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Drug improvements and upgrades
Improve medicines (efficacy, materials) by communicating with pharmaceutical factories, hospitals, and other large-scale mature institutions and scientific research personnel, listening to their professional opinions.
Conduct in-depth experiments and try to minimize side effects and adverse reactions Communicate views with the government, listen to official opinions on our products and make improvements (audience, purchasing standards, pricing, cooperative products).