🔒Azitra CEO Andrews sees bright future in clear skin

At its best, the biotech startup ecosystem is populated by some of the world’s smartest and more industrious problem-solvers willing to put in countless hours with the goal of improving people’s lives and health.

That’s how Azitra CEO Richard Andrews sees it and why he’s worked as a biotech startup executive for more than 20 years.

“The people in this business really want to do something to help patients,” Andrews said. “They want to make a difference. They want to do something special. They want it to matter.”

Since he joined Farmington-based Azitra in 2017, Andrews has spearheaded growth initiatives for the startup, which is working on isolating bacteria found on the skin (called microbiome) to treat skin problems, or make cosmetics for sensitive skin.

The 19-person venture-backed company is readying a move to Branford this spring from its starter space at the University of Connecticut’s Technology Innovation Program building in Farmington. The new 12,000 square feet of lab and office space at 21 Business Park Drive comes as Andrews works on expanding Azitra’s business, including a recent partnership with pharma giant Bayer.

Azitra is working with Bayer Consumer Products to identify and qualify bacterial strains that could improve skin appearance, Andrews said. The results could be used in cosmetic products.

Andrews has spent a lot of his career working on the business and policy side of chemistry, an interest that was piqued during his college years in the 1970s.

Andrews, a New Jersey native, was at Purdue University in Indiana working toward his master’s degree in physical chemistry when the topic of genetic engineering was raising eyebrows and ethical questions. As scientists and policymakers reached a general consensus to explore the new technology in a careful and deliberate way, Andrews enrolled in a master’s program at MIT that covered chemical engineering, technology and policy.

“This was that same time back in the ‘70s where a lot of us were trying to look at how do you understand scientific change, and how does scientific change influence society?” Andrews said. “Because it can be an incredible engine for delivering really great therapies, and helping the economy.”

Research consulting firm Arthur D. Little hired Andrews after he graduated from MIT. There he advised startups on the regulatory hurdles standing between ideas and products, and learned important lessons on what makes a successful biotech business.

He first dipped his toes into the startup world at a Lexington, Mass., company now called Amicon Corp., which makes artificial kidney filters for people with renal failure. From there, he served as chief operating officer, chief business officer and CEO of several biotech companies including RenaMed Biologics Inc., ProThera Biologics and others, over more than two decades.

By the 2000s startups and headhunters sought out Andrews to grow their businesses, he said. Years in the field and countless elevator pitches provided him with an internal checklist to determine whether a company has a shot at making it.

“You get a sense of, ‘OK, does this work? Does it make sense?’ ” Andrews said. “I think one time somebody tried to get me to commit to a company that I was quite sure they violated the second law of thermodynamics, so I was pretty sure it wasn’t gonna work.”

When a recruiter asked Andrews to consider a startup called Azitra a few years ago, he wasn’t looking for a new job. His wife wanted him to retire. But after the recruiter’s fifth call, Andrews took a look at the company. It checked all his boxes, and a meeting with co-founder and Chief Science Officer Travis Whitfill sealed the deal.

Azitra has raised $17 million since its 2014 founding and its scientists are working on two major programs: developing cosmetics that use natural skin organisms to mitigate dry or oily skin, and a treatment for chemotherapy and renal-failure patients experiencing severe rashes.

These products are moving into clinical testing this year, Andrews said. He expects they’ll be market ready in about three years.

With that promising research and development underway, Andrews said, it’s time for Azitra to move into a new and expanded space to grow its business operations. Right now Andrews’ top priorities are fundraising and moving toward clinical tests.

Andrews also wants to build a direct sales operation and he could see a future in which Azitra grows indepently, or is acquired by a larger company. For now, he said, his focus is growing a company he believes in.

“It’s my job to build a company, and that’s what I’m going to do,” Andrews said.