PharmaDiagnostics is an as-yet little known but ambitious company which has found out how to screen for molecule interactions and properties in high throughput formats, without using radioactive or fluorescent labeling or specialized equipment.  Their clever discovery has led to the development of a series of screening kits that will slot nicely into existing early pharma discovery labs.

Having achieved its Series B financing and validated its technology with collaborating pharma partners it was ready to take the next step to become a fully commercial screening company, providing screening reagents and protocols for screening both small molecule and antibody drugs.   As is typical of companies at this stage in development, the budget was small and the timeline, tight.

Development of the Brand and Identity

Firstly, we got to grips with the company’s scientific background and its product and service offerings so that we could develop a strong and recognizable brand that would effectively reflect its values and technology.

PharmaDiagnostics’ technology exploits a long-known unusual property of gold whereby any molecular interaction at its surface causes a change in the way it refracts light.  It turns out that this change is quantifiable and occurs in the visible spectrum, making it ideal for use in pharmaceutical screening applications.    The team at PharmaDiagnostics has developed gold nanoparticles in solution form that can be attached to any type of molecule – protein, peptide, chemical fragment or compound.  These can be tested for their interaction with other molecules in high throughput 384- or 96-well formats by a simple “mix and read” protocol, using an off-the-shelf absorbance plate reader to obtain the results.  As a result, pharma and biotech customers can take the solutions into their own labs to screen their compound libraries without having to procure new equipment or adapt lab space.

As it turns out, gold nanoparticles in solution are not sparkly and gold in colour as I had imagined, but a sort of burgundy red (pink when diluted) and it turns a shade of purple when there’s a chemical interaction taking place.  This was the basis for the logo design.

Before:

old logo

After:

New logo

Gold nanoparticles in solution, simple protocols, simple product and service offerings are reflected in the logo design.  An inordinate amount of time was spent in getting the colours to match the bottles of gold nanoparticle solution.  I am glad that it didn’t end up being yet another blue logo (is it me or is this the default colour for all pharma service companies?).

As for the product and technology branding, we prompted for the name “SoPRano™” which is derived from Surface Plasmon Resonance with nanoparticles.  Some gentle, dry sense of humour was involved but actually it was surprisingly easy to use against the product lines and gave a hint of the elegance of the technology.

Website design

From this:

old tech-focused website

Technology-focused, science-heavy content, no clear product/service definitions or positioning.

To this:

new website and branding

Bright, clear navigation concentrating on clearly defined products and their applications within pharma/biotech early discovery.

To see more, visit their website.

Key messages – keeping them simple, clear and honest

The company was refreshingly pragmatic and honest in its approach to key message development.  They wanted to be known as the experts in label-free screening and that’s all.  It is a small company with clever, unique technology that will fit easily into mainstream early drug discovery so it is likely that they will be acquired at some stage by a larger establishment servicing the same target market.  There was no need for grandiosity as is common in this sector so phrases like “partners in drug discovery” etc were not used.

We identified key words and messages and constructed the website using these in headers and in page descriptions.  As a result, we were able to write the web copy with search engine optimisation in mind, rather than “retrofit” SEO, as is the norm for most company websites.

The finished product took a few weeks to perfect but it gave the tools and templates for the rest of the company’s branding – from the exhibition stand, letterheads, slide templates, sales product sheets to e-newsletters.

The result: distinctive and consistent corporate identity and strong branding for a clever company which now has the tools to do business.