Todd Zion, Founder of Akston Biosciences: From a $500M Exit to Pioneering Biotech Innovation in Pet Health

Akston Biosciences is revolutionizing pet healthcare through innovative protein engineering and biotechnology solutions. After selling his first company Smart Cells to Merck for over $500M, Todd Zion founded Akston Biosciences in 2011 to apply advanced biotech expertise to the growing pet health market. With over $50M in funding, Akston is developing breakthrough treatments including once-weekly insulin, cancer therapies, and other protein-based medicines for pets, while maintaining cost effectiveness for pet owners.

Topics Discussed: 

• The transition from human health biotech to the pet health market 
• Streamlined clinical trial processes in pet health vs. human health 
• The evolution of the pet healthcare market and consumer willingness to pay 
• Balancing technical innovation with cost-effective development 
• The challenges of fundraising in an emerging biotech category 
• Pipeline development across multiple pet health conditions

GTM Lessons For B2B Founders: 

• Navigate pivots decisively: Todd emphasized that most founders wait too long to pivot. He advises that when you start seeing signs that the future isn't unfolding as planned, that's the time to begin considering a pivot - while you still have resources and before becoming too entrenched. Their pivot to focusing entirely on pet health required significant restructuring but ultimately created a clearer path forward.
• Find the regulatory sweet spot: Akston discovered that pet health offered a faster path to market validation compared to human health biotech. The ability to conduct field trials with just hundreds rather than thousands of subjects, combined with more streamlined regulatory requirements, allowed them to de-risk their assets more quickly and cost-effectively while still maintaining high standards.
• Build for the actual market conditions: Rather than assuming future market changes (like expanded pet insurance coverage), Akston designs their products around current market realities - namely that most pet medications are paid out-of-pocket. This forced them to innovate not just technically but in development and manufacturing to keep costs accessible to pet owners.
• Create new categories through technology translation: Instead of building an entirely new technology, Akston applied proven biotech approaches from human health to the pet market. This allowed them to leverage existing expertise while pioneering a new category, positioning themselves as "the Biogen for pets" rather than just another pet health company.
• Structure early testing for rapid validation: By utilizing the FDA's investigational new animal drug application process, Akston could begin testing in their target population much earlier in development. This enabled them to validate their concepts within a year rather than waiting through multiple phases of trials, allowing for more efficient resource allocation.

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