Arete Biosciences

Project overview

Arete was engaged to manage a point-of-care clinical study for a respiratory assay with an aggressive timeline: complete all study activities within a single respiratory season - despite final product labeling remaining under internal review until the last minute.

Key Achievements

Accelerated Study Startup to Meet Seasonal Deadline

Arete was tasked to initiate 14 clinical sites and 3 reference laboratories during one respiratory season. In early November, our team visited the client’s headquarters and provided critical usability feedback that led to valuable product labeling updates. Final product labeling and approved study documents were received in late November. Despite the tight timeline, site initiation visits began the week before Christmas and continued through the first week of February.

Key Achievement

Arete completed two site initiation visits and enrolled five participants before the holiday break, which enabled the client to meet its internal goal of launching the study before year-end.

Client Impact

The client successfully reported study launch to executive leadership before the close of the year, meeting a key corporate milestone and reinforcing stakeholder confidence across the organization.

Conversations From Inside the Collaboration

The EXOKĒRYX collaboration demonstrates the power of true partnership in health tech development. Rather than simply executing predetermined specifications, we worked shoulder-to-shoulder with their team to reimagine possibilities, overcome complex technical challenges, and deliver a market-ready solution that exceeded expectations.
Here, key members of the EXOKĒRYX team share their firsthand experience of our collaboration—from navigating initial complexity challenges and scaling expertise efficiently, to structuring development around investor milestones and achieving remarkable speed-to-market. These conversations reveal how the right partnership can transform ambitious scientific vision into practical, commercial success.

Bryan Rice - President & cto

The Complexity Reset

When innovative startups have breakthrough scientific concepts, translating vision into practical products requires both ambition and specialized expertise. EXOKĒRYX came to us with promising technology and clear market potential. Through collaborative engineering and our deep expertise in biotech instrumentation, we worked together to optimize their architecture for both performance and manufacturability. The result was a refined design that maintained all the scientific capabilities while dramatically improving reliability and reducing cost. This case demonstrates how the right partnership can accelerate the journey from ambitious concepts to market-ready solutions.

Nick Tripsas - VP Manufacturing and Tech transfer

Scaling Without Risk

Small healthtech companies face an impossible equation: they need world-class expertiseacross multiple disciplines, but can't afford to hire permanent specialistsbefore proving market demand. EXOKĒRYX solved that challenge by partnering withour established development teams. Instead of doubling their workforce withindividual hires who would need months to get up to speed, they gainedimmediate access to engineers who already knew how to work togethereffectively. This approach not only provided the technical capabilities theyneeded but also gave them the flexibility to respond to marketconditions—whether demand accelerated faster than expected or took longer tomaterialize than planned.

Amber Murray - SVP, Application

Investor-friendly Milestones

Successfullyfunded health tech companies understand that development timelines must alignwith investment cycles. EXOKĒRYX needed to show consistent, measurable progressto secure follow-on funding while building a complex life sciences instrument.We structured their development process around investor-friendlymilestones—each phase delivering working prototypes or validated technicalcapabilities that could be demonstrated to current and prospective investors.This approach not only helped them maintain funding momentum but also ensuredthat each development dollar was being used efficiently. By understanding boththe technical and financial requirements of their journey, we helped them buildinvestor confidence alongside their actual product.

John Timpkins - SVP of Product

The Smile Moment

Complexengineering challenges benefit from collaborative problem-solving and diverseperspectives. EXOKĒRYX was working through sophisticated requirements thatnaturally led to an increasingly complex system architecture. While the designwas technically sound, the team recognized an opportunity to explorealternative approaches that might offer better manufacturability andreliability. Our collaboration brought fresh perspective and specializedexperience with similar instrument challenges. Together, we developed afundamentally different approach that met all the core requirements whilesignificantly reducing system complexity. This partnership demonstrates howcombining internal expertise with external specialization can unlock elegantengineering solutions.

Janet Anna - Director of Marketing

Speed To Results

In healthtechnology, timing often determines market success. EXOKĒRYX had identified asignificant opportunity but faced the reality that traditional developmentapproaches would take too long to capture it. By partnering with ourexperienced team, they compressed what could have been an 18-month internaldevelopment process into a 6-month sprint to working prototype. This wasn'tabout rushing—it was about applying specialized knowledge and provendevelopment processes to avoid the learning curve that comes with buildingcomplex instruments for the first time. Our deep experience with similarsystems allowed us to anticipate challenges, select appropriate technologies,and focus development effort on the unique aspects of their application ratherthan reinventing established approaches.

A Top Diagnostics Company Needed to Move Fast and Arete Delivered