Every year, millions of people suffer from parasitic diseases like malaria. Parasites are also a massive financial burden in agriculture, destroying tens of billions of dollars’ worth of livestock and crops a year. Yet the drugs we use to resist these invaders are decades old. Indeed, parasitic infections are called neglected diseases due to the lack of research and innovation in the field.

In comparison, we’ve made great strides in fighting bacteria and viruses. Vaccines are very effective against these pathogens, and pharma companies introduce new or improved immunizations on a routine basis. Unfortunately, vaccines don’t work on parasites: their organisms are much more complicated and similar to ours, which makes them excellent at adapting to our immune systems. We need a different approach to handling parasitic diseases.

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Parasites are like cancer cells

ASTRA Therapeutics has come up with such a new approach. Once upon a time, the two co-founders, Natacha Gaillard and Ashwani Sharma, worked together in an oncology research group at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI). Natacha’s focus was on oncology and molecular biology, while Ashwani specialized in parasitology and structural biology. This combination inspired an epiphany in one coffee break conversation: as masters in adaptation, aren’t parasites a bit like cancer cells? And if so, could we use methods from cancer therapies to treat parasitic diseases?

The traditional way to battle parasites is to randomly screen existing molecules in hopes of discovering one that somehow repels parasites. This is slow, expensive, and basically just shooting in the dark. In contrast, ASTRA creates its own molecules using a method it calls ‘knowledge-guided precision design’. This means the company’s scientists first collect experimental data on how different molecules interact with parasites and then use this information to build molecules that behave as needed. These designed molecules target the parasite’s cellular mechanisms very precisely, for example by disrupting its cell division process. This is also what some of the most efficient chemotherapeutics molecules do to cancer cells.

The original epiphany was just the first step. The founders’ idea would have remained hypothetical without recent advances in methods for implementing it. Thanks to the vast amounts of structural data available through X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy, ASTRA has access to enough information to understand how molecules interact with parasites. And after the latest leaps in artificial intelligence, the team can manage these heaps of data effectively to design their drugs.

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Crossing the gap from lab to market

Natacha and Ashwani met in 2012 at PSI, where they worked together for years. The two were able to develop a proof of concept while still employed at the institute. However, the need to see a real-world impact beyond academic publications inspired Natacha and Ashwani to leave academia and become entrepreneurs.

Being a brilliant scientist with a great idea is, however, not enough to build a successful business. Ashwani admits the researchers were naive when they first entered the corporate world. During their first investor pitches, they didn’t even know what an ‘exit strategy’ was. In fact, the founders took offense when asked about plans to sell their company: “We weren’t looking to sell, we were hoping to build the next pharma giant”, Ashwani laughs. Since then, Natacha and Ashwani have improved their corporate literacy through coaching programs like Innosuisse and Venture Kick. They’ve also hired business experts in the team, and they continue to work with advisors who help them navigate the commercial world.

Terminology and domain expertise aren’t the only gap between academia and industry: the information venture capitalists want from founders is vastly different from the data researchers need for academic prestige. As scientists in academia, Natacha and Ashwani were able to develop their idea far enough to show that it works in the lab. But investors wanted to see data of the solution working in real life, which is a whole new set of expensive experiments that are not possible in an academic setting. It was a chicken-and-egg problem: to raise funds, Natacha and Ashwani first needed to spend millions to collect the necessary proof.

This funding gap is what the Swiss ecosystem fills well, Natacha praises. Between their last academic salary and first VC bank transfer, the two founders lived and worked solely on grants and loans from the deep-tech startup ecosystem. ASTRA Therapeutics was incorporated in 2022, and it closed its first financing round in summer 2025. In between, the company won a GRS InnoBooster grant and graduated from the Venture Kick program in 2023, while Natacha also received a one-year PSI Founder Fellowship grant. ASTRA also won a CHF 1M Innosuisse grant in January 2024 and joined the Kickfund portfolio in December 2024 with a convertible loan.

With the recent CHF 7.75M seed round in the bag, ASTRA can work now on its product roadmap. The company’s current focus is on animal health, specifically on parasites in agricultural livestock – chickens, in particular – and domestic pets – mostly cats and dogs. Animal health is a massive global market that’s faster to enter, delivers quicker impact, and requires less upfront investment than human health. ASTRA doesn’t exclude expanding into humans and crops once they’ve built and validated their solution for animals and secured enough funds for the move.

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Shared leadership is a Swiss tradition

ASTRA’s team includes ten employees and a handful of external advisors and supporters. The founders want to keep their team lean even as the company matures: they expect to grow only up to 15 or 20 people. This is possible if they keep only crucial R&D in house and outsource any irregular tasks, such as chemistry or manufacturing.

The company’s leadership model has raised some eyebrows, Natacha notes. The two co-founders are also co-CEOs, and they make all important decisions together. Natacha recalls how some early advisers struggled to accept this structure; they believed a company needs a clear, single leader to be taken seriously within the corporate world. The two held their ground and have never regretted it: not a single investor has challenged their management structure, Natacha observes.

Two people don’t need to think identically to share one responsibility; in fact, it’s better if they don’t. The ASTRA founders are clearly different people: Natacha describes herself as the structured one, while Ashwani brings the best ideas and insights. It does take seamless communication and a lot of trust, but this arrangement guarantees multiple perspectives, balanced decision-making, and a collaborative team spirit rooted at the top.  

Joint command isn’t even as unusual as skeptics may think: shared leadership is a tried and tested Swiss tradition. Instead of a single president, the country is steered by the seven-headed Federal Council. Some major political parties have also selected two co-presidents as their national figureheads. The French- and Indian-born ASTRA founders are thus in sync with their chosen home’s collaborative ethos.

Indeed, throughout its short history, ASTRA has experienced the power of working together. Diverse scientific backgrounds spark ideas, while advances in different methodologies open up new research areas. Natacha and Ashwani have also seen that two heads make better decisions than one, and that a strong national support system can turn bright ideas into thriving companies.

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ASTRA Therapeutics is one of the rising companies mentioned in the Swiss Deep Tech Report 2025. Read more about the report here.