Overview
Horizon Discovery Group is a UK translational genomics company developing and supplying patient-relevant drug discovery and diagnostic research tools. It is an example of a product business model. Horizon is building scale partly through acquisitions. It bought the CombinatoRx service business and assets from Zalicus Inc for £4.7 million and Sage Labs Inc for up to $48 million last year, and bought Haplogen Genomics GmbH for an initial consideration of £6 million earlier this year.

Using their genome-editing platform GENESIS, Horizon has created over 500 isogenic X-MAN (Gene-X, Mutant And Normal) cell lines. Academic and industry research centres around the world use these cell lines to understand the effects that genetic mutations have on drug activity, patient responsiveness, and drug resistance, which allows for scientists and doctors to develop treatments tailored to specific diseases, and to run smaller, faster, and more risk-free clinical trials by enabling pre-selection of patients most likely to respond.

History
From Wikipedia: Horizon Discovery Group was founded in Cambridge, UK, in 2005. In September 2013 Horizon announced 2 major collaborations with Sigma-Aldrich and Harvard University, incorporating the companies’ respective nuclease genome-editing technologies into Horizon’s GENESIS platform. The first collaboration with Sigma-Aldrich saw the licensing of Zinc Finger Nuclease (ZFN) technology, which provides rapid and efficient knock-out of two or more alleles, complementing the precision of Horizon’s proprietary rAAV technology. In the collaboration with Harvard University, Horizon licensed the IP for RNA-guided gene editing system CRISPR, which allows the introduction of a single stranded nick in the genome of mammalian cells, allowing specific gene mutations to be created that are not possible with other nuclease technologies. Their Scientific Advisory Board was expanded in 2014 to include CRISPR experts Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier, Dr. J. Keith Joung, and Dr. Feng Zhang. In 2014, Horizon entered into a genetic diagnostic test development collaboration with Transgenomic in which Horizon Diagnostic’s quantitative molecular reference standards would be used in all existing and future assays developed. As of 2014, Horizon Discover Group revenues totalled £11.9 million.

Customers
Organizations engaged in genomics research, researchers, academics, and drug groups are all customers of Horizon Discovery. The company’s customers include AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and Johnson & Johnson, as well as universities worldwide.

Learn more about the Product Business Model

A dyadic transactional relationship where your good or service can be designed and delivered without prior interactions with the customer.

Engagement  — Value Creation Proposition
Horizon Discovery supplies research tools to organisations engaged in genomics research and the development of personalised medicines. The products include genetically-defined cell lines, reporter gene assay kits, genomic reference standards and contract research services to organizations engaged in bio-pharmaceutical process optimization, drug discovery & development, and clinical diagnostic development.

Delivery — Value Chain
Horizon Discovery operates a hierarchical value chain, with scientists at its laboratories developing new and existing products. Delivery is contracted through third party logistics providers.

Monetisation — Value Capture
Each cell mutation that Horizon creates sells for £330 and the company currently produces 200 a month. So far, the company has built a portfolio of 14,000 cell mutations. The company aims to sell 100,000 mutations annually as it grows.

New cell lines for a commercial company costs between $3,465 and $6,930 depending on the size of the company. For academics, the price for the same cell lines lowers to under a thousand dollars.

Horizon sells its Guide RNA design and validation for $5,000 and an Expert gene editing kit for $500. Horizon Discovery sells Reporter kits for between $550 and $5,500 depending on the size of the kit.

 

 

Awards and Winners Website: http://awardsandwinners.com/winner/?name=horizon-discovery-ltd&mid=/m/0zbsl3l

Company Website: http://www.horizondiscovery.com/

Wikipedia Entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizon_Discovery

Disclaimer — Written by Nadim-Laurent Berro and edited by James Knuckles under the direction of Prof Charles Baden-Fuller, Cass Business School. This case is designed to illustrate a business model category. It leverages public sources and is written to further management understanding, and it is not meant to suggest individuals made either correct or incorrect decisions. © 2016