Biotech startup PHIOGEN earned the top spot for its diversity, equity and inclusivity (DEI) efforts, outcompeting 45 companies shortlisted for the Best Inclusivity award at the 16th Annual SXSW Award Ceremony.
PHIOGEN attended the widely renowned conference after being selected out of 670 companies as a finalist in the Food, Nutrition & Health category at SXSW. The company also outperformed 45 competitors across nine categories for the Best Inclusivity award.
Commenting on the win, Chris Valentine, Event Producer at SXSW Pitch, said: “PHIOGEN’s victory in the Best Inclusivity category at SXSW underscores a fundamental truth: the cornerstone of success for any company lies in the richness and diversity of its team. By embracing a holistic approach to team building and championing inclusivity at every turn.”
Located at the Texas Medical Center Innovation Hub, women account for 50% of PHIOGEN’s dynamic team, including founders, advisors and CEO Amanda Burkardt. Moreover, three members are green card holders and two are first generation immigrants. Colleagues across the company also represent a diverse selection of ethnicities, including Indian, African American, Portuguese, Korean, Hispanic and Moroccan.
Amanda Burkardt celebrated the win: “It is an absolute honor to be recognized as the most diverse and inclusive team from the nation’s most diverse city! The competition was fierce, so this acknowledgment is a really proud achievement for us. Our deliberate cultivation of scientific excellence inherently fosters a diverse and dynamic team where we use our collective expertise to further technological advancements in phage therapy.
“Being selected as a finalist in the Food, Nutrition and Health category is also a real credit to the work we’ve been doing. I’m excited and confident about the projects we have in the pipeline and can’t wait to share more of our truly groundbreaking R&D updates later this year.”
PHIOGEN is developing next-generation biotherapeutic solutions utilizing its high-throughput bacteriophage technology platform to tackle critical and life-threatening infections. Primarily the company’s focus is on antimicrobial-resistant urinary tract infections (UTIs), a historically overlooked and underfunded area of research and medicine that primarily effects women.
Valentine continued: “PHIOGEN exemplifies the power of harnessing diverse perspectives. This award is a testament to their commitment to fostering an environment where everyone thrives, and it serves as a reminder that when we prioritize inclusivity, we unlock limitless potential.”
Launched in June 2023, PHIOGEN unveiled its innovative technology platform at the 6th World Conference on Targeting Phage Therapy in Paris, where the team was presented with the ‘Best Scientific Innovation Award’. The company has since been selected as a finalist at the annual Innovation Festival Startup Pitch Competition, nominated for the CPHI Pharma Awards, and attended events including the World AMR Congress, the ASM Microbe Conference and the Texas Life Science Forum.
PHIOGEN’s novel therapeutics have already been administered to patients in FDA approved compassionate use cases where conventional antibiotics have stopped working. The company’s breakthrough in bacteriophage technology overcomes the challenge of resistance, opening a commercial pathway for non-personalized phage therapy in which single biological products are capable of treating large-scale patient populations.
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About PHIOGEN
PHIOGEN™ is a trademark of PHIOGEN INC. PHIOGEN is an innovative biotech company housed in the Texas Medical Center’s Innovation Hub and is committed to using proven technology to deliver patient-ready bacteriophage products to tackle the most deadly and serious bacterial infections facing our world. PHIOGEN’s world-class patented process has received early proof of concept validation through several in vivo studies as well as use in patients under FDA approved compassionate use cases.
For more information: www.phiogenpharma.com
