Daybreak - How a Bangalore biotech quietly built a blindness breakthrough in under $10 million

Episode Date: May 9, 2025

Eyestem, a 14-member biotech startup from Bengaluru is turning heads in global pharma circles. With just $10 million and a modest 1,200 sq ft office, it has developed a promising cell therapy for dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD)—a condition that leads to blindness and has no cure. Early trial results are not only encouraging, they’re outperforming billion-dollar competitors in the West.But this isn’t just about scientific innovation. It’s about doing more with less. Eyestem’s founders set out with a bold goal: to build a cutting-edge treatment that’s actually affordable, especially for Indian patients. Think world-class therapy in under $10,000. In the current world of cell and gene therapies, where treatments often cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and remain out of reach for most, it is next to impossible.How did Eyestem achieve this and what does this means for the future of biotech in India?Tune in.If you have any thoughts or questions about this episode, send them to us as texts or voice notes on Daybreak’s WhatsApp at [phone]. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar. If you've heard any of the Ken's podcasts, you've probably heard me, my interruptions, my analogies, and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering why am I interrupting this episode too. It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sita Ramon Ganeshan, my colleague and the Ken's deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called Intermission.

We want to tell the secret sauce stories of India's greatest companies. Stories of how they were born, how they fought to survive, how they build their organizations and culture, how they manage to innovate and thrive over decades, and most importantly, how they're poised today. To do that, Sita and I have been reading books, poring over reports, going through financial statements, digging up archives, and talking to dozens of people. And if that wasn't enough, we also decided to throw in video into the mix. Yes, you heard that right. Intermission has also had to find its footing in the world of multi-camera shoots in professional studios, laborious editing, and extensive post-production.

Sita and I are still reeling from the intensity of our first studio recording. Intermission launches on March 23rd. To get an alert as soon as we release our first episode, please follow intermission on Spotify and Apple Podcasts or subscribe to the Ken's YouTube channel. You can find all of the links at the ken.com slash I am. With that, back to your episode. It's the kind of phone call that you never forget. Jokindasai, the CEO of a tiny biotech company in India,

was going about his day when his phone rang. A doctor from Hyderabad was on the other end. And he didn't sound angry. He was just confused and he sounded urgent. What have you done? he asked. Jogen's heart dropped. He was expecting the worst. Maybe something had gone wrong with their clinical trial.

And then the answer came. My blind patient is walking in the hallway. Let that sink in. A legally blind person walking. After receiving an experimental cell. therapy designed to treat dry age-related macular degeneration or AMD, a condition that until now had no cure. And this wasn't a one-off miracle. More such calls followed from more doctors, more patients, and the results? Better than what billion-dollar American and Swiss pharma companies

had seen in their own trials. This is the story of ISEM. an Indian biotech startup run by just 14 people from a 1,200 square foot office in Bangalore, India. It is also the story of how science, personal tragedy and relentless innovation might come together to transform lives, not just for the rich, but for millions of ordinary people around the world. And more surprisingly, they are doing it on a shoestring budget. And Big Pharma is watching closely. This is not just a medical story. It is a business story.

It is a story about ambition, about access and about dignity. And it is just getting started. Welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from the Ken. I'm your host, Nick Das Sharma, and I don't chase the news cycle. Instead, every day of the week, my colleague Rahal Philipos and I will come to you with one business story that is worth understanding and worth your time. Today is Friday, the 9th of May. To begin with, let us talk about what eye stem actually did and why it is such a big deal. Dry age-related macular degeneration or AMD affects the part of the eye that is responsible for central vision.

It is progressive, it is incurable, and it is common, especially among people over the age of 50. In India alone, nearly 5 million people suffer from dry AMD. Globally, almost 200. million. Until recently, there were no good options, no drugs, no surgery, just slow, irreversible vision loss. But eye stem is flipping that narrative. They are testing a cell therapy, essentially injecting retinal cells into the eye to restore vision, not just to stop the disease, but to restore sight. And the numbers are wild. One of their competitors, backed by Roche, showed a 5.5 letter improvement in vision.

Another American firm called Luxar reported 21 letters. ISTEM, their average improvement is 15 letters. And the consistency across patients, even leading retina experts are calling it persuasive. This is cutting-edge science. And it did not start in a shiny lab with endless funding. It actually started with a heartbreak. Jogen Desai was not thinking. about building a biotech empire. He was dealing with something far more personal, a family member

facing vision laws. Around the same time, retina specialist Dr. Rajani Batu, was seeing patients go blind with no treatment to offer. The both of them together realized something. This wasn't just about medicine. It was about dignity. My colleague Seema Singh and the editor of the Ken spoke to Dr. Batu, and she said that her patients were not afraid of death. they were afraid of being dependent. And that is what drove Dr. Batu and Jogen Desai to build eye stem. And it started with a modest $1 million from friends and family, just enough to fund some research and enough to take a gamble.

But Desai had a vision. A cure affordable to everyday Indians priced under $10,000. Now, here is where things get interesting. Most cell therapies today, especially in cancer, use the patient's own cells. It is effective, but it is expensive and it is hard to scale. ISTEM went on a different part. They used allogenic cells, which are cells from a donor source. They can be mass-produced, stored and distributed like a regular drug.

That means lower cost, greater reach and scalability. And they've stayed lean, wild-dews. it. 14 employees, a shoestring budget, manufacturing partnerships in India and Singapore, outsourcing everything they can except for their core innovation. Even the way they've gone about sourcing their cells is super smart. They licensed cells from the US National Institute of Health Bank, paying a reasonable fee but getting quality starting material. From a single while, they can grow up to 80 million retinal cells, which, are enough for 160 doses. And their goal? 10,000 doses per batch. Now, let us not ignore the

elephant in the room, which is money. Biotech is a brutal business. Cell and gene therapies are notoriously expensive. In India, most people cannot afford treatments priced in the lakhs or tens of thousands of dollars. Even discounted CART cancer therapy in India costs 40 to 45 Lack rupees and insurance does not cover it. Most people cannot dream of affording it. Desai knows this, which is why he is trying to do things differently. He just closed a $10 million funding round, bringing ISEMs total to $20 million, which is a lot for India. But it is pennies compared to what U.S. firms spent.

And yet, ISTEM is attracting attention from five major global pharma companies who wanted. because this is not just good science, it is good business. Global biotech is starting to notice something. India is not just a manufacturing base anymore. It is becoming a source of innovation. Desai and his team are now preparing to file their American investigational new drug or I&D application by the end of this year, which is their ticket to global trials and potentially global markets.

And retina expert Dr. Srinivar Sada, who chairs ISTEM's imaging board, sees the promise. He's seen the data, the consistency and the potential for regulatory breakthroughs. And as he puts it, this is not just impressive, this is exciting. And of course, there is still a long road ahead. ISTEM needs to build out manufacturing, train doctors and figure out distribution. They need to ensure reliability, scalability and regulatory approval in multiple markets. But they've actually already done the hard part, which is that they've proven their therapy works.

And they've proven that it can be done on a budget. So you see, this is not just about science. It's about strategy. It is about culture. It is about frugality without compromise. And it is the kind of story that could change how we think about medical innovation. Not just in India, but everywhere else. So what happens next?

Will ISTEM become India's first biotech unicorn with a conscience? And will big farmer partner or compete? And will millions regain their vision at a price that they can actually afford? And most importantly, Ken science, business and compassion really coexist. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of the Ken, India's first subscriber-focused business news platform. What you're listening to is just a small sample of our subscribers. subscriber-undi offerings. A full subscription unlocks daily long-form feature stories,

newsletters and podcast extras. To subscribe, head to the ken.com and click on the red subscribe button on top of the Ken website. Today's episode was hosted by Snigtha Sharma and edited by Rajiv Siyah.