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47 | DOING BUSINESS IN CONNECTICUT | 2018 2018 | DOING BUSINESS IN CONNECTICUT | 47 Killing Cancer Westport startup takes a new approach to chemotherapy By Steve Lubetkin When Lewis Bender decided to pursue a new approach to cancer therapy after spending nearly three decades in the pharmaceutical industry, he located his company, Intensive Therapeutics, in Connecticut. "I lived in Connecticut for almost 30 years," he explained. "When I started my own company, I had the ability to do that [come back], because I really liked living in Connecticut. It's a very nice place to live and I wanted to stay closer to home." Bender, who had spent four years as CEO of Interleukin Genetics in suburban Boston and also held executive positions at Emisphere Technologies in New Jersey, started Intensity Therapeutics to research and commercialize a new chemotherapy delivery approach, injecting chemicals directly into a tumor, a process that also stimulates an immune response to any remaining cancer cells. With clinical trials underway, commercialization is probably several years away, he said. Intensity Therapeutics has kept its team small – it's just Bender and two partners – and its cash "burn rate" lower than comparable biotech startups, Bender said. "It's not necessary to invest in large infrastructure," he said. "You can outsource a lot of the work that you need to do. We do use a CRO (contract research organization) here in the state of Connecticut, a company called C3. We feel that it's important to be working with local organizations to get better results. And I think that if Connecticut were to have more of the research services, not necessarily companies, but research services, they could take off in terms of the ability to create new products at low costs. You don't need to build a large set of laboratories. You don't need to build all this infrastructure; you can find it." Connecticut's "quiet, high level of biotech savvy" made the decision easy when Bender decided to locate his startup in Westport. He points out the proximity of many other life-sciences companies in The Nutmeg State. With his children grown, Bender and his wife enjoy traveling. He also makes guest appearances in middle-school classes to underscore the importance of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) learning. At home, he's into outdoor sports, especially hiking, and he's dabbling a little bit in the agricultural arts, raising exotic chickens on his property. "Chickens happen to be unbelievable tick-eating robots," he said with a laugh. "You put 10 chickens out on the lawn, and the tick population is significantly decimated." Raising chickens, he said, is "very relaxing and a good break from just the daily grind of focusing on trying to help people with cancer." PROFILE Lewis Bender, founder of Intensity Therapeutics " " "When I started my own company, I had the ability to do that [come back], because I really liked living in Connecticut. It's a very nice place to live and I wanted to stay closer to home." - Lewis Bender