Coming from a family of scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs, it is no surprise that Ulupreneur Rachel Sha is now the CEO of a healthtech company. Although she once considered a career in medicine, helping her parents with their business gave her an early look at what it takes to build and run a company.
She began her career in consulting, working at Accenture and advising electronics and high-tech clients, but she wanted to do something more meaningful—work that would also address pressing health and medical needs.
Rachel attended Harvard Business School as a way to pivot back into the life sciences, with the goal of working in biotech and big pharma. Over the course of her career, she has worked across a wide range of areas, from large chronic diseases to rare specialty-care conditions. Her experience has spanned small molecules, biologics, medical devices, consumer health products, and vaccines.
In 2022, she made another pivot, leaving big pharma to become a venture capitalist. She spent two years as an operating partner at Engine Ventures, where one portfolio company in particular caught her attention: Vaxess. At the time, the company’s mission was to deliver vaccines and other medicines through a patch. Rachel recognized that the company was at an inflection point and saw the broader potential of the technology, including its ability to deliver chronic therapies such as the weight-loss drugs known as GLP-1s. We caught up with her just as Vaxess rebranded as Terrestrial and launched a new campaign.
What have been the challenges?
There have been macro-level challenges, including current immigration policies that have affected some of our employees, as well as uncertainty around grant funding. And when it comes to weight-loss drugs, what was once a massive open market has quickly become a highly competitive space, with nearly 150 other drugs now in development.
“The good news is that we are currently the only company with a patch capable of delivering the necessary amount of medicine in a patient-friendly way.”
It’s a patch you wear for five minutes, once a week; no sharps or refrigeration. Fast and easy.
We are also excited about a new market made up of people who may not need to lose a significant amount of weight but still want help maintaining fitness and overall wellness. Because it is a patch—no needles, no refrigeration—we hope it could eventually be made available over the counter at low doses. We believe many patients and consumers would be interested in that kind of product.
What have been your recent milestones?
We recently announced a $50M Series C for a total of $150M raised to date. In 2024, we completed our first demonstration in large animals. That was an important milestone because it showed that when the patch is applied, we can deliver a comparable amount of drug to what an injection provides.
We are now advancing the program with the goal of entering Phase 1 clinical trials sometime this year. In our human factors study, we also found that patients preferred our patch over injections, with 95% favoring the patch. If all goes well, we could be in the market by the early 2030’s. We have expanded our relationships and discussions with multiple pharmaceutical companies.
AI must be a huge factor in research and development, in what other ways is it making a difference?
There is a great deal of change happening right now, and we are doing everything we can to take advantage of technological advances. Because our manufacturing process relies in part on computer vision, we are leveraging advanced analytics I in research and development and in our manufacturing process. In addition, we are investing in automation and robotics.
GLP-1s are currently primarily used for weight loss. Do you see other possible benefits?
As people start to lose weight with GLP-1s, increasingly there is interest in maintaining that weight lost or preventing weight gain from happening. We’re seeing people use these medicines for a broad range of reasons. Data is also beginning to show benefits for cardiovascular health, sleep apnea, and even areas such as neurocognitive function. The evidence is still emerging, and we are very much in the early stages of understanding the full implications of these medicines. For now, the primary focus remains weight management.
What are your dreams for Terrestrial?
My dream is for Terrestrial to become a household name—one that people associate with trust and confidence when they are looking to get healthy, whether it’s to maintain their weight, slim down, or achieve more significant weight loss.
Ultimately, I would love to see the product made available over the counter at low doses, so that anyone who believes they could benefit from it can afford to buy it.
