Alex Clark Brings Mobile Innovation to the Pharmaceutical Industry
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Andrea Wood
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Alex Clark AppWorld Blackberry cheminformatics iphone Molecular Materials InformaticsAfter almost 10 years developing cheminformatics software for the pharmaceutical industry, Alex Clark left his job and founded Molecular Materials Informatics. Over the course of his career he’d observed a gradual growth in mobile computing and an obvious need for scientific apps for the mobile interface. As a trained chemist, Alex had an intimate understanding of the needs of chemists. As a self-taught developer, he identified an opportunity to work within the limited input capacity of mobile devices and still create accurate molecules. Alex believes he’s positioning himself for success in a soon-to-emerge market for touch-based molecular modelling devices.
I met Alex earlier this month at the Montreal New Tech Demo, where he presented Molecular Materials Informatics. Alex, a New Zealand native with a Ph.D. in Chemistry, understands the complexities and costs associated with the pharma business but still decided to go at his new project alone. He kick-started the development of the project earlier this year and has already released 2 products. Alex and I spent some time talking about his project over the weekend.
NextMontreal: How did you determine a need for mobile molecular modeling software?
Alex: Over the past 8 years I worked primarily on desktop software for the pharmaceutical industry. I couldn’t help but notice the increasing power of mobile devices. Handhelds are frequently more powerful than the desktop systems I used as a graduate student – and there was plenty of chemistry software available back then.
I wondered what it would take to design a program that would let people draw molecules on a handheld device with incredibly limited input capabilities. Nobody had done anything like that, because software for drawing molecules all works by pretending your mouse is actually a pencil. It preserves the desktop metaphor, to a point. But you can’t do that with a keypad or a miniscule touch screen. As I thought about it more, I realized that I had some tricks up my sleeve that might just make it work. And it’s not easy, either, so I was confident of being first to market, without being scooped.
NextMontreal: It sounds like you didn’t come into cheminformatics blind. What’s your background?
Alex: I completed my Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1999. I always imagined that one day in my lifetime the field might advance far enough that people would be able to “program with molecules”. I taught myself to code in high school, and decided to study science at university. A personal computer is a lot more affordable and forgiving than a laboratory! After my Ph.D. I found myself writing software for the pharmaceutical industry. Pharmaceutical research encompasses one of the major intersections between chemical sciences and software development, with a lot of very interesting and very well funded projects around the world.
NextMontreal: Tell me about your distribution model.
Alex: The interface was developed for chemistry professionals who work with molecular structures, mostly within the pharmaceutical industry. The mobile products have potentially broad appeal, and are available for BlackBerry and iPhone/iPad from AppWorld/AppStore.
The products are nearing feature completion, to a point where it is possible to make a strong case for deployment throughout a research institution. They also carry the ability connect to specially designed web services, which makes it possible for a company to integrate the BlackBerry product with existing software services safely within the company firewall. The plan for the near future is to approach potential customers with a compelling proposal for providing software, support and integration services.
NextMontreal: What developments tools do you use?
Alex: The products for BlackBerry and iOS are native applications, so they use Java and Objective-C respectively. For software projects designed for servers or desktop/laptop computers, standard Java is the development environment of choice. Web applications mix in the usual collection of HTML, JavaScript, CSS and PHP, where appropriate.
NextMontreal: You left your ‘day job’ to work on Molecular Materials Informatics. How are you funding the project?
Alex: For the moment, Molecular Materials Informatics is completely self-funded. As the sole employee with only a home office, the company costs almost nothing to run. That will change, of course, once the focus switches from product development to business administration like market research, sales and support. Whether this will be done by bootstrapping or external investment remains to be seen.
The focus so far has been exclusively on building products, networking within the scientific community, and establishing a brand amongst the target audience. This is about enough work to keep one person fully occupied. It would be great to be able to offload some of the development work, but the problem with building cutting edge software is that you’re never 100% sure what you want until it’s finished. And for these early products, I have to be very particular about the details. Quality is really important, and every little thing has to fit into the big picture, too.
Company growth and product commercialization depend on presentation of a coherent package of products and services that include application software, software customisation, integration and support. It all comes down to leveraging an innovative new product by offering high quality products and services to go with it.
NextMontreal: As an expat Kiwi, how did you end up in Montreal and how can your business benefit from the location?
Alex: If somebody had told me I would end up in Montreal while I was growing up in New Zealand, I would have laughed. I worked in the USA for a few years, and then found a perfect job that just happened to be in Montreal.
From my point of view, the city is well situated and well connected. Montrealers strike a good balance between life and work, which is a positive attribute. Startups are not tempted to coerce their employees into a culture of workaholism, which is all too common in North America, and ultimately counterproductive. There is a lot of interaction between entrepreneurs, investors and government. The community is also very friendly and welcoming, which is another characteristic of Montreal in general. I certainly intend to participate as often as possible!
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