A very Happy and Prosperous New Year to all of Ten Bio’s clients current and future, suppliers, investors, and staff. We are all excited at the prospects of our business in 2024.
The new year is a time to look forward, but before we do that, it is worth a brief reflection on our experience in 2023.
In 2023, we were able to accelerate the expansion of awareness of Ten Bio within our key sectors and client companies. The conferences that are most relevant to our science and technology returned to near pre-pandemic operations – offering great opportunities to attend, present, and exhibit how Ten Bio is providing improved outcomes to our clients. The ISID meeting in Tokyo in May was a major event with global representation. There were other large events and smaller specialist forums that we benefitted from attending. We also sought to fully exploit social media and are delighted with our successes through that channel.
In what we see as a major step in the deepening relationships with some of Ten Bio’s clients, our team has been invited to visit clients’ labs to discuss in detail the ambitions and requirements of those research teams and to participate in global meetings of the companies’ international research communities. We look forward to similar opportunities in 2024.
To close down the backward look I wanted to report that in 2023 Ten Bio has achieved some very aggressive targets set for the business in terms of contacts and projects won for our fantastic clients which include Unilever, AbbVie, and J&J’s Kenvue. At just three years from spin out, we are focused on the top line of our business performance, and that performance in 2023 has been excellent. Major milestones have been achieved throughout the past year.
To everyone involved, it is not just a case of wishing you well for 2024 and beyond. It is also a huge thank you from Ten Bio to all of our stakeholders for your confidence in our capabilities, your support, and for the great opportunities to work with and for you.
Turning to the future, so far in 2024 we have weathered the health storm of a return of Covid and a variety of other viral afflictions. Ten Bio is now fully functioning after the holidays. Our order book is busy with an exciting mix of projects from current and new clients, and we have scheduled visits to the labs of some of our biggest clients to explore new ways of collaborating.
We are readying the team for the roadshow that will take us to the major events of 2024. The SID in May in Dallas and the ESDR in Lisbon in September will be highlights of the year to come.
The key question we now face is that of scale. How do we do that to ensure we can connect and service the widest possible community of clients in our priority sectors of aesthetic dermatology, cosmetics, biopharma, wound management, and medical technology? Today we have significant unutilised capacity thanks to expansion of our team in the US. We are looking to bring in senior scientists who can contribute to our expansion plans in terms of geography and portfolio of products and services. Southeast Asia is a booming market for aesthetics which is a target for Ten Bio. We are in discussions with parties to explore how we can achieve the market access we seek.
Expanding our product portfolio is a priority, for example in the design and delivery of new disease models. Inflammation is an early target, and we are looking for collaborations with interested parties to expand our thinking in this area. New presentations of TenSkin™ are scheduled which will further enable work in the areas of vaccine delivery, microneedling, and genetic diseases of the skin which takes our founders back to their focus when in academia. A new hair follicle model for drug delivery work is also being considered. We are very much indebted to our advisory board for their valuable support and guidance in scientific matters. We look forward to that association extending long into the future.
Finally, and this very much in my ‘wheelhouse,’ Ten Bio is looking to add new directors to our board who will bring their positive experiences in our market and in business financing and management to our discussions and direction-setting. We hope to be able to announce new arrivals early in 2024.
The keys to our success in 2024 and beyond will be bringing in new science and commercial talent into Ten Bio, expanding our relations with our current clients, winning the confidence of new clients, effective collaborations with related companies, and renewed financial investment.
The Ten Bio team is very much looking forward to the opportunities of 2024 and commits to keeping our readers fully up to date with our progress.
Ken Fyvie
January 2024