When you’re a vet, you learn a variety of ways to fight cancer. Then you face the reality that many pet parents can’t afford or choose not to go through with the treatments. Siobhan remembers the quiet blows that came week after week, where so many pet parents decline treatment because it’s too costly, too harsh, too far away, or simply not available. In New Zealand especially, access is thin, with only a handful of registered dog treatments and very few specialists. And yet cancer is everywhere, affecting one in four dogs and one in six cats, while around 60% of pet parents decline treatment altogether. This is the gap Kode Veterinary Sciences is built to close.

Meet one of the founders of Kode Veterinary Sciences, one of eighteen exciting ventures taking part in the Sprout Accelerator Spring25 Cohort. Siobhan Graham, a veterinarian and CEO, was invited to co-found the company to adapt a promising human immunotherapy drug developed by parent company, Kode Biotech, for use in animals. She leads a passionate and driven team that includes the CEO of Kode Biotech, Stephen Henry, inventor of Kode technology, co-founder and Chief Scientific Advisor; board chair Selwyn Yorke, an experienced biotech director; and John O’Toole, an experienced director. Their advisory team has recently been joined by Douglas Thamm, an experienced veterinary oncologist based in the US. Together, they’re driven by a simple mission, as Siobhan shares, “It’s cancer, right? If there is potential for a drug to work and bring great outcomes for pets and pet parents, then why not explore it?”

Their answer is an immunotherapy treatment designed to be given as injections during a standard GP consult - no surgery, no anesthetic, and fewer barriers to access for clients. The aim is to be safer than chemotherapy or major surgery, more accessible than radiation, and meaningfully more affordable than today’s high-ticket options, while still competing on efficacy. Dogs are the first focus because of registration strategy and market logic, but the science points to multi-species potential over time.

One of Siobhan’s biggest surprises was learning that many veterinary trials don’t fail because a drug is unsafe or ineffective, but because researchers can’t recruit enough animals to prove it. That insight reshaped Kode’s clinical trial strategy. The team is running a New Zealand trial targeting dogs across the country, including Hawke’s Bay, Wellington, Hamilton and Auckland. With dog number 16 recently enrolled, the next goal is clear, to gather enough robust data by the end of the year to support a stronger valuation and then to complete a capital raise early next year.

Their mission is as personal as it is clinical. Kode Veterinary Science wants to help redefine compassionate cancer care, finding a middle ground between aggressive, quality-of-life-sapping regimens and doing nothing at all. That means care that ordinary families can afford and manage, without reorganising their lives for months on end. For Siobhan, there’s also a legacy piece. She wants to highlight to other New Zealand vets that entrepreneurship is a path to impact, not a departure from it.

Now, as part of the Sprout Accelerator’s Spring25 Cohort, Kode Veterinary Science is gearing up to hit its next big milestones, which include completing its clinical trials and preparing for a capital raise. The vision is straightforward and ambitious, an accessible treatment on clinic shelves around the world.