Unlocking the power of plants

“It’s important to look at the statistics,” says Cynthia Hunefeld, CEO and Founder of Wellington-based biotechnology company Evithé. And the statistics are clear: 78% of patients prefer a botanical drug over a synthetic chemical. 

Having spent years studying plant science and commercial pathway development, Cynthia understands the opportunity this demand presents. Since founding Evithé in 2017, she has been using plants such as ginger to develop botanical prescription drugs and multi-target pharmaceuticals (drugs designed to modulate multiple biological targets simultaneously). Evithé’s work has attracted overseas investment and paved a new path for drug development here in New Zealand. 

Cynthia’s mission started more than 30 years ago. “I was looking for a solution to help my dad. He had sepsis, and I knew antibiotics weren’t working for him.” Her father was left permanently disabled from the illness, but when he developed another infection, it was Cynthia’s prototype that saved his life. 

“Our pharmaceutical drug focuses on the protection of vital organs during sepsis. It’s super important. 22 million people get sepsis every year, half of them will survive, of which one out of three will have permanent organ damage. There’s no solution; the treatment people get for sepsis today is the same as my father had thirty years ago.” 

“For our botanical drug, we’re looking at the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis; we want to show immune inoculation and prevention of disease progression. Our preclinical trials are super exciting; it’s equal or better than critical steroids.” 

The drugs Evithé are developing are proving popular even before being made widely available. During trials at Wellington Hospital, all the available patient slots were filled within a few days. Feedback and trial observations have been overwhelmingly positive. Unlike a lot of the commonly prescribed steroids, Evithé’s product doesn’t have the same drawbacks. “One of the things we did see in our preclinical studies was no rebound effect. That was very exciting.” 

It has been a long process to get their products to market approval. Ensuring a patent is watertight is essential for medical development. Cynthia notes the first question generally asked on a grant application is not ‘is this a life-saving idea?’ but rather ‘what’s your patent status?’. “We won a research and development grant in the early stages. That was completely foundational. And then, through WellingtonNZ, we had some amazing help; one of the key grants for us was the Intellectual Property Grant.” This is a grant to help businesses cover costs for developing, protecting, and commercialising innovations. Evithe has also engaged with angel investment groups to raise capital and help support the launch of commercial products. Cynthia’s experience with these groups in the innovation eco-system has been very positive.

Cynthia notes that what helped them most in the early stages and what makes New Zealand particularly special is its science and business community. “You can pick up the phone and pretty much get anyone on the phone. ‘Do you have time available? Can you help us with this?’ People are so generous.” 

Evithé is not only a forerunner in the botanical drug market but also in medicine development in general. “At the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, we found out that we’re one of the first New Zealand companies to run a clinical trial in New Zealand. We really wanted to show that you can actually do this.”