By Danielle A. Young and Stephan Kutzer (“AKDYS”)
After a combined 40+ years in various technical, commercial and leadership roles in the pharma and biotech industry (see “About Us”) we ventured into a 12 month personal sabbatical to focus on health, family and brainstorming about the next steps on our professional path. The result turned out to be amazingly simple – to strive for the elusive “life balance” by blending our personal and professional lives and focusing our efforts in the areas we are passionate about.
Those that know us well can tell you our story is a dynamic and evolving journey to follow our passion. We look forward to you joining us in one (or all!) of AKDYS’ initial three service offerings, which follow the theme of using knowledge and data to drive health and creative design.
Pharma & Biotech Advising
Over half of the industry’s recently approved drugs originated from the thousands of startup companies around the globe. Whether promoting a new molecule, a new indication, a new formulation, a new drug combination or a new contract service offering, these startups have two things in common: the constant drive to appropriately position and advance their new idea in the market and to secure and maintain financial backing.
AKDYS partners with its clients, whether a product company, a CMO/CDMO or a VC/PE firm, to generate market and business intelligence data, business strategies, business plans, coach leaders and their teams and even develops board and investor relation presentation materials. We passionately support our clients in the transformation of their idea into a successful reality.
Architectural Graphics
During our school days we both enjoyed classes, internships and summer jobs designing computer generated and hand drawn flow diagrams, construction schematics, floor plans and engineering layouts.
In the last year while creating AKDYS, we had the opportunity to go back to our roots with architectural graphic design work to support a client’s surplus orders. As it turns out, our love for the creative design world is still alive. So, with our 25 years of combined experience in the graphic design space, we excitedly add graphics to the AKDYS toolbox, focusing initially on the commercial and residential home building industries.
Mold Toxicity “Battle” Blog
Throughout our lives, we both had an acute interest in science and human health. Danielle pursued a biology degree with a fleeting interest in med school and Stephan, after spending his youth watching his mother work as a doctor in the emergency room, followed in his father’s footsteps and pursued an education in chemical engineering.
We also both grew up with family histories of different chronic health situations, from connective tissue and heart disorders, high blood pressure and cholesterol, PKU, food and in/outdoor allergies, severe asthma to structural and functional sinus abnormalities. Unfortunately, some of our health conditions intensified during a 2 year exposure to mold and lingered even after we removed ourselves from that environment.
After 4 years of what seemed like back-to-back sinus infections, recurring bronchitis, constant dry cough, head fog, skin rashes, food intolerances and intensifying indoor & outdoor allergies (culminating in EpiPen® prescriptions), we found a doctor – a former Navy ENT – knowledgeable on how detrimental molds and their mycotoxins are to the human body for years after exposure ends. He not only knew what to look for and had answers, but also recommended immediate solutions to bring us back to health.
We started our detox program in March 2019 with an immediate diet change, new exercise routine and infrared sauna sessions. Through our continued research, we discovered we, unfortunately, are not alone. Mold and mycotoxin poisoning is not considered a serious condition in the medical community, despite the debilitating daily impact on countless patients. Many of these patients are still living without any answers, with doctors downplaying their symptoms, ordering antibiotic prescription after antibiotic prescription and suggesting allergy shots. Or the dreaded, all too often heard, response that nothing is wrong. This one is usually accompanied by “the” tone that says the patient is over-reacting.
We benefited and found a recovery path because of the shared stories of similar experiences, and therefore, want to continue the chain by sharing our story, our detox measures and our exercise routines in the AKDYS Mold Toxicity “Battle” Blog. Our goal is to provide what works for us in the hope it will help other “mold victims” learn about options to discuss with their healthcare professionals and find their way back to feeling like their normal, healthy self.