My story
One question guides my career: how can science benefit us?
This question led me into science commercialisation; how a discovery becomes something humanity can use
About
Auxinia was founded by Flora Shimi in 2026.
“Auxinia is a way I can share my knowledge and experience across Business Development, Competitive Intelligence, Alliance Management, Partnerships, Consulting and building programs for deep-tech entrepreneurs with those building at the frontier of biotech.”
Experience
Competitive Intelligence
Business Development
Alliance Management
Entrepreneurship Training
Network Creation
About
Auxinia was founded by Flora Shimi in 2026.
“Auxinia is a way I can share my knowledge and experience across Business Development, Competitive Intelligence, Alliance Management, Partnerships, Consulting and building programs for deep-tech entrepreneurs with those building at the frontier of biotech.”
Experience
- Managed and contributed to projects for 6 of the top-ten global pharma and for 9 mid-cap or clinical-stage biotechs across immunology, neurology, obesity, oncology, infectious diseases, aesthetics and medtech.
- Managed competitive intelligence, landscape monitoring and ad hoc research for a clinical stage biotech prior to its >$3Bn acquisition.
- Directed a team of 25 freelance researchers to support competitive intelligence gathering.
- Conducted primary intelligence in French and English, recruiting industry SMEs and clinical and scientific KOLs.
- Completed Pharmaceutical Licensing Group’s Business Development Training.
- Built and qualified an out-licensing funnel with tailored outreach to >100 pharma companies to out-license preclinical immunology assets.
- Acted as point of contact for out-licensing relationships for >35 S&E and BD teams, progressing to late-stage diligence.
- Led executive workshops on key-term positioning, leveraging intelligence analyses on deal-structure and valuation benchmarking, and the implications of patent life-cycles for combination therapies.
- Provided updates to executive team on BD status, conducted intelligence dives into tailored program positioning and communications for key potential partners.
- Attended BIO Europe and prepared executive leadership team with strategic information packs for qualified meetings at JPMorgan.
- Alliance Manager for C4X Discovery’s agreements with AstraZeneca and Sanofi for deals valuing ~$900m in clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones.
- As first employee at Spin Up Science, helped build the flagship program, the Science Entrepreneur Experience.
- Trained >30 students from the University of Bristol’s Centre for Doctoral Training, Quantum Engineering CDT and the BBSCR’s High Value Chemicals from Plants CDT.
- Organised QTEC’s flagship Start-Up Experience, alongside its Technology Showcase and Investor Showcase.
- Founded the LifeSci Sisters community in London, for >270 women in biotech and life sciences to meet quarterly for informal drinks and connect over whatsapp.
My story
One question guides my career: how can science benefit us?
This question led me into science commercialisation; how a discovery becomes something humanity can use…. After completing my MSci in Medicinal Chemistry at UCL, I built deep-tech educational programmes for Spin Up Science and the Quantum Technology Enterprise Centre, to guide PhD and postdoc scientists how to identify commercial opportunities in their research and spin out a venture.
During covid, I took a career break in France to grapple with a question that had been haunting me - does how we approach ‘innovation’ help or harm humanity? I worked on an idea for a web3 based platform that rewarded individuals with crypto for doing community and environmental work; and trained as a coach to support people (like me) recovering from burnout.
Emerging from burnout, I was drawn back to my roots in biopharma as it offered the clearest way for innovation to benefit humanity. I had regained my optimism for life (and a healthy skepticism for the limits of blockchain) and was eager to get a firm grounding in how the pharma industry operates. So, I became a competitive intelligence consultant and led projects for several major pharma companies and clinical stage biotechs across a range of therapeutic areas. This gave me invaluable insight into the strategic questions pharma comes across at different stages of the development path.
In 2024, in what felt like a full circle moment, I joined the commercial team for C4X Discovery, a UK based biotech with a medicinal chemistry platform discovering small molecules to treat inflammation and immunology diseases. My role rapidly expanded from commercial intelligence to business development, alliance management, and communications.
I recognised a wider trend in the biotech industry and an opportunity started to crystallise:
- Biotech companies need commercial intelligence because even if the quality of the science is outstanding, to open the door to funding and partnering opportunities, teams need to be able to concisely tell the strategic and commercial story and their plan to get there
- Commercial intelligence tends to follow a ‘project-based’ workflow, so fractional support with ad-hoc projects, that can be paused during moments of cash-flow uncertainty would better enable biotech to bring in the insight it needs while extending runway
Auxinia was founded to meet this need and bring together the different strands of my unconventional career. To play a small role in the translation of science from bench discovery to life-changing medicine.