tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57348546088742314412010-04-26T15:34:00.682+01:00Ithaka Life Sciences - BlogIthaka Life Sciences Ltd (Ithaka) is a provider of business advisory and interim management services to the life sciences sector.Paul Rodgershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02137819282161301725noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5734854608874231441.post-86836494865945768492010-04-26T15:34:00.001+01:002010-04-26T15:34:00.787+01:00This blog has moved<br /> This blog is now located at http://blog.ithaka.co.uk/.<br /> You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds or you may click <a href='http://blog.ithaka.co.uk/'>here</a>.<br /><br /> For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to<br /> http://blog.ithaka.co.uk/feeds/posts/default.<br /> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5734854608874231441-8683649486594576849?l=www.ithaka.co.uk%2Fblog' alt='' /></div>Paul Rodgershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02137819282161301725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5734854608874231441.post-49256074929615971132010-04-13T13:35:00.003+01:002010-04-13T13:54:02.469+01:00Open innovation for the developing world<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold" lang="EN">Open innovation</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN"> is a term promoted by Henry Chesbrough, a professor and executive director at the Center for Open Innovation at University of California Berkeley, in his book <i>Open Innovation: The new imperative for creating and profiting from technology</i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic"> (2003, </span>Boston: Harvard Business School Press). “Open innovation is a paradigm that assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as the firms look to advance their technology”.</span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN"> </span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN"></span></span></p><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN"><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN">The central idea behind open innovation is that in a world of widely distributed knowledge, companies cannot afford to rely entirely on their own research, but should instead buy or license processes or inventions from other companies. In addition, internal inventions not being used in a firm's business should be taken outside the company (e.g. through licensing, joint ventures, spin-offs).</span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><span style="mso-fareast-: EN-GB;font-family:'Times New Roman';" ><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></span> </p></span></span><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN"></span></span></p><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN"><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN">The concept has been adopted most widely in the computing world where open source software projects are built and maintained by a network of volunteer programmers. Prime examples of open source products are the <a title="Apache HTTP Server" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_HTTP_Server"><span style="color:#0000ff;">Apache HTTP Server</span></a>, the e-commerce platform <a title="OsCommerce" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OsCommerce"><span style="color:#0000ff;">osCommerce</span></a>, the internet browser <a title="Mozilla Firefox" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Firefox"><span style="color:#0000ff;">Mozilla Firefox</span></a> and the <a title="Linux" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux"><span style="color:#0000ff;">GNU/Linux</span></a> operating system.</span><span style="mso-fareast-: EN-GB;font-family:'Times New Roman';" lang="EN" > </span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span><span style="mso-fareast-: EN-GB;font-family:'Times New Roman';" ><o:p></o:p></span> </p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><span style="mso-fareast-: EN-GB;font-family:'Times New Roman';" ><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Open innovation is also beginning to emerge in life sciences as the pharmaceutical industry struggles to cope with declining R&D productivity; examples include:</p><ul style="MARGIN-TOP: 0cm" type="disc"><li style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1" class="MsoNormal"><div align="justify">Sage (<a href="http://sagebase.org/"><span style="color:#0000ff;">http://sagebase.org</span></a>): using data from Merck and seed funding from private sources; and</div></li><li style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1" class="MsoNormal"><div align="justify">Two initiatives created and spun out by Lilly: InnoCentive (<a href="http://www.innocentive.com/"><span style="color:#0000ff;">http://www.innocentive.com</span></a>) and Collaborative Drug Discovery (<a href="http://www.collaborativedrug.com/"><span style="color:#0000ff;">http://www.collaborativedrug.com</span></a>), harnessing the collective talent accessible through the Internet.</div></li></ul><p style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal" align="justify">However, the area where open collaboration may have the greatest potential could be in bringing about genuine innovation in science and technology able to make a real-life difference to billions of poor people in the developing world who can benefit from scientific advances. An example that has really impressed me is Science for Humanity (<a href="http://www.scienceforhumanity.net/">http://www.scienceforhumanity.net/</a>), a charity that has created a network of scientists and technologists (“solvers”) in order to provide innovative solutions to the urgent problems brought to the charity by developing communities, local NGOs and international agencies (“seekers”).</p><p style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal" align="justify"> </p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><o:p></o:p></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal" align="justify">Science for Humanity was founded by Professor Baroness Susan Greenfield together with Justin Anderson, an IT entrepreneur, and Andrew Doman, a former Director of McKinsey. The aims of the charity include:</p><ul style="MARGIN-TOP: 0cm" type="disc"><li style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2" class="MsoNormal"><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">identify science-based problems in association with their seekers and community partners<o:p></o:p></span></div></li><li style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2" class="MsoNormal"><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">ensure that the problem has not been addressed or already solved by another party<o:p></o:p></span></div></li><li style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2" class="MsoNormal"><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">establish projects to tackle the problems and develop viable solutions<o:p></o:p></span></div></li><li style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2" class="MsoNormal"><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">communicate the project to the Science for Humanity network of scientists and solvers<o:p></o:p></span></div></li><li style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2" class="MsoNormal"><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">facilitate co</span>llaboration and innovation on potential solutions through their network</div></li><li style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2" class="MsoNormal"><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">support funding of information gathering and pilot projects<o:p></o:p></span></div></li><li style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2" class="MsoNormal"><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">develop new models to support the design, development and delivery of innovative solutions <o:p></o:p></span></div></li><li style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2" class="MsoNormal"><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">share the outcomes to demonstra</span>te new ways of applying science and technology in the interest of developing communities </div></li></ul><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><o:p></o:p>Examples of current projects include:</p><ul style="MARGIN-TOP: 0cm" type="disc"><li style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3color:black;" class="MsoNormal" ><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:85%;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-family:'Verdana', 'sans-serif';">Green Charcoal</span></b><span style="font-family:'Verdana', 'sans-serif';">, based in Uganda, this project aims to develop alternatives to using wood biomass as energy by finding innovative technologies and machinery for transforming crops, such as candlenut seed kernel, palm seed kernel and cotton stokes, into green charcoal. A solution to this problem could reduce the dependency on forest mass for energy, avert climate change effects on the local environment and people, reduce the time and energy for people to collect wood biomass, and create employment for local communities.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div></li><li style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3color:black;" class="MsoNormal" ><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:'Verdana', 'sans-serif';"><span style="font-size:85%;">The <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Peru Coffee</b> project seeks to improve soil fertility for coffee production on the eastern slopes of the Andes due to deforestation, insufficient coverage to protect the soil, and agriculture without application of inputs to the soil. Whilst technologies exist to regenerate soil fertility, the solution to this challenge needs to be adaptable to the reality of small producers focused on organic markets.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div></li><li style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3color:black;" class="MsoNormal" ><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:'Verdana', 'sans-serif';"><span style="font-size:85%;">The <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Ecosan</b> project, initiated by the WAND Foundation in the Philippines, aims to test the concept of ecological sanitation, which explores the response of crops, such as trees, vegetables and coconuts, to Ecosan product treatments (</span><a href="http://www.ecosan.ph/index.php"><span style="font-size:85%;">http://www.ecosan.ph/index.php</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">), such as urine and faeces. A solution to this project could improve food security, reduce water consumption, and decrease the spread of infectious diseases.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div></li></ul><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><span style="font-family:'Verdana', 'sans-serif';font-size:85%;color:black;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><span style="font-family:'Verdana', 'sans-serif';color:black;"><span style="font-size:85%;">These are some of the Science for Humanity projects that can meet people’s needs, help to alleviate poverty and contribute to sustainable development. If you are interested in making science, technology and innovation work for poorer people in the developing world then please consider becoming a member of Science for Humanity (both individuals and organisations are eligible for membership) and get involved. </span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><span style="font-family:'Verdana', 'sans-serif';color:black;"><span style="font-size:85%;">See </span><a href="http://www.scienceforhumanity.net/get-involved/become-a-member"><span style="font-size:85%;">http://www.scienceforhumanity.net/get-involved/become-a-member</span></a></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal" align="justify"></span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p align="justify"><br /> </p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5734854608874231441-4925607492961597113?l=www.ithaka.co.uk%2Fblog' alt='' /></div>Paul Rodgershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02137819282161301725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5734854608874231441.post-36356801818184550072010-02-22T18:29:00.003Z2010-02-22T18:38:14.481ZPrinting body partsThe old saw that truth is stranger than fiction seemed particularly apposite when I read an article in the Feb 18th 2010 issue of The Economist (<a href="http://www.economist.com/">http://www.economist.com</a>) entitled “Printing body parts: making a bit of me”. It what seems to me to be one of the most exciting recent developments in regenerative medicine, a machine that can print biological tissues is coming to market.<br /><br />As is so often the case, this breakthrough has resulted from many years of painstaking research by several pioneers working at the interface of technologies that are conventionally regarded as unrelated, in this case regenerative medicine, printer technology and rapid-prototyping.<br /><br />The first commercial 3D bio-printer for manufacturing human tissues has been developed by Organovo (<a href="http://organovo.com/">http://organovo.com/</a>), a company in San Diego that specialises in regenerative medicine, and Invetech (<a href="http://www.invetech.com.au/">http://www.invetech.com.au/</a>), an engineering and automation firm in Melbourne, Australia. One of Organovo’s founders, Gabor Forgacs of the University of Missouri (<a href="http://organprint.missouri.edu/www/">http://organprint.missouri.edu/www/</a>), developed a prototype to study ways to produce human tissue for clinical uses.<br /><br />The 3D bio-printer works in a similar way to some rapid-prototyping machines used in industry to make parts and mechanically functioning models. These are essentially inkjet printers, but working in three rather than in two dimensions. Such printers deposit droplets of polymer which fuse together to form a structure. With each pass of the printing heads, the base on which the object is being made moves down a notch. In this way, little by little, the object takes shape. Voids in the structure and complex shapes are supported by printing a scaffold of water-soluble material. Once the object is complete, the scaffold is washed away. Something similar can be done with biological materials.<br /><br />Though printing tissues is new, growing them from scratch on scaffolds has already been done successfully. Anthony Atala and his colleagues at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in North Carolina (<a href="http://www.wfubmc.edu/wfirm/">http://www.wfubmc.edu/wfirm/</a>) have made new bladders by utilising a combination of cell culture and a biodegradable bladder-shaped scaffold. In 2006, they transplanted bladders into seven patients, all of whom still have functioning bladders today.<br /><br />The advantage of using a bioprinter is that it eliminates the need for a scaffold, so Dr Atala, too, is experimenting with inkjet technology. To see the technology in action you should view his video at<br /><a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/anthony_atala_growing_organs_engineering_tissue.html">http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/anthony_atala_growing_organs_engineering_tissue.html</a><br /><br />The technology potentially is awesome. However, at the moment it is only possible to produce relatively simple tissues (like skin, blood vessels and muscle) and simple structures like bladders where you have only one or two cell types. It is going to be much more difficult and complex to generate solid, vascularised organ systems with the right functionality. Also, the current products from Organovo are for research purposes only.<br /><br />However, the company expects that within five years, once clinical trials are complete, the printers will produce blood vessels for use as grafts in bypass surgery. With more research it should be possible to produce bigger, more complex body parts. Because the machines have the ability to make branched tubes, the technology could, for example, be used to create the networks of blood vessels needed to sustain larger printed organs, like kidneys, livers and hearts.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5734854608874231441-3635680181818455007?l=www.ithaka.co.uk%2Fblog' alt='' /></div>Paul Rodgershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02137819282161301725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5734854608874231441.post-57565962758021282282009-12-15T17:55:00.003Z2009-12-15T18:11:15.574ZFood for thought<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;">Last week I attended the Genesis conference (<a href="http://www.genesisconference.co.uk/">http://www.genesisconference.co.uk</a>) in London. It was an enjoyable event with some good presentations and the usual networking opportunities. The conference has become something of a showcase for the UK biotech scene and, given the current economic situation, the mood was surprisingly upbeat.</span></p><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri', 'sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-: EN-GB"><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;">Reflecting back on the conference, one of the things that struck me was the domination of the agenda by drug discovery and, to a lesser extent, medical device technologies. Now this is nothing new but, as someone who has spent at least half of his career applying biotech to the food and agriculture sectors, I continue to be both amazed and disappointed by the lack of attention paid by the UK biotech community to matters gastronomic. No doubt our French friends would have something to say on this subject but it seems to me that, in the UK biotech, is synonymous with healthcare and medtech.</span></p><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;">Now, there is no doubting the importance for society of addressing healthcare issues and the potential financial rewards for the developers of new products in this sector.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>However, has no one in the UK biotech community heard about the looming issue of food security, which promises to be just as much of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>a global threat as<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>any pandemic?</span></p><o:p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;">Take the drought that devastated the Australian wheat harvest last year; wheat prices across the globe soared by 130%, while shopping bills in Britain leapt by 15%. This was a mere foretaste of what is likely to come. Over the next 40 years Britain's population will rise from 60 to 75 million while the world's will leap from 6.8 to 9 billion. Feeding all these people will stretch human ingenuity to its limit.</span></p><o:p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;">Professor Mike Bevan of the John Innes Centre in Norwich has said "We are going to have to produce as much food in the next 50 years as was produced over the past 5,000 years. Nothing less will do." Because of climate change, the farmers of tomorrow will not only have to improve yields using less fertiliser and less water, they will also have to be increasingly wary of new agricultural pests and diseases as global temperatures rise and more and more devastating varieties of plant viruses and fungal pathogens spread around the globe. You can find more information on these issues at <span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-: EN" lang="EN"><a href="http://www.foodsecurity.ac.uk/"><span style="color:#0000ff;">www.foodsecurity.ac.uk</span></a>.</span></span></p><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-: EN" lang="EN"><o:p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;">Europe has been something of a no go area for biotech crops over the last decade but the rest of the world has moved on with 125 million hectares of biotech crops planted in 2008. There is now an urgent need to develop novel ways of growing food crops with fewer chemicals, in more hostile environments and with potentially severe water restrictions. This is a challenge that the UK, and the rest of Europe, cannot afford to ignore; we must start to channel some of the ingenuity previously applied to, for example, the development of therapeutic antibodies, towards the production of crops and agricultural systems that can cope with all that climate change will bring to our farming communities.</span></p></o:p></span></o:p></o:p></o:p></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5734854608874231441-5756596275802128228?l=www.ithaka.co.uk%2Fblog' alt='' /></div>Paul Rodgershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02137819282161301725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5734854608874231441.post-84902434434706023322009-10-29T17:03:00.000Z2009-10-29T17:05:20.168ZNew approaches to stimulating the productivity of pharmaceutical R&DI’m sure we all remember the excitement generated by the sequencing of the human genome in the late 1990’s culminating in publication of the essentially complete genome in April 2003. This was accompanied by a lot of hype about the impact on pharmaceutical R&D productivity and a concomitant surge in investment into the sector.<br /><br />Looking back as the end of the decade draws near it is clear that the much anticipated impact on pharmaceutical R&D has not materialised. The rates of new product approvals has declined whilst investment in R&D has continued to climb; a recent analysis of the Pharmaprojects database revealed that between 2000 and 2008, 1,941 drugs in development were discontinued (Biancardi, A. & Green, S. Scrip 100, S33–S36, 2008).<br /><br />One of the principal factors contributing to the problem is the complexity of the biology underlying specific diseases. This, coupled with the recent explosion in large-scale biological data, is leading to a realisation that no individual organization has the resources to maximize the potential of molecular data to inform drug development.<br /><br />It is interesting to observe the emergence of novel models for pre-competitive collaboration to help tackle the challenges of innovative drug development (see Hughes, B. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 8, 344-345, 2009). Some of these models seek to leverage information in an open-access way (freely available with no intellectual property (IP) restrictions). Examples include:<br />· Sage (<a href="http://sagebase.org/">http://sagebase.org</a>): using data from Merck and seed funding from private sources<br />· Two initiatives created and spun out by Lilly: InnoCentive (<a href="http://www.innocentive.com/">http://www.innocentive.com</a>) and Collaborative Drug Discovery (<a href="http://www.collaborativedrug.com/">http://www.collaborativedrug.com</a>), harnessing the collective talent accessible through the Internet<br />Several other drug development challenges, such as biomarker identification and validation, are increasingly being addressed at a pre-competitive level, often through public–private partnerships. Examples include:<br />· The Biomarkers Consortium (<a href="http://www.biomarkersconsortium.org/">http://www.biomarkersconsortium.org</a>)<br />· Critical Path Institute consortia (<a href="http://www.c-path.org/consortia.cfm">http://www.c-path.org/consortia.cfm</a>)<br />· The Innovative Medicines Initiative (<a href="http://imi.europa.eu/index_en.html">http://imi.europa.eu/index_en.html</a>)<br /><br />The issue of who owns the IP arising from these partnerships has provoked much debate. The research tools that emerge from the IMI will be made available to other companies and academic groups for research purposes at a reasonable cost or free of charge, although the IP rights will belong to members of each consortium.<br /><br />I am Chairman of Psynova Neurotech (<a href="http://www.psynova.com/">www.psynova.com</a>), which is a participant in one of the first projects funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative. The project is just getting off the ground but our experience to date suggests that public–private partnerships have much to offer the pharmaceutical industry. A more flexible attitude to the creation and exploitation of IP appears to be the order of the day.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5734854608874231441-8490243443470602332?l=www.ithaka.co.uk%2Fblog' alt='' /></div>Paul Rodgershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02137819282161301725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5734854608874231441.post-6302762067885065242009-08-24T14:17:00.000+01:002009-08-24T14:19:24.746+01:00Stimulating venture capital investment in the UK regionsA few years ago I was working with a couple of very promising biotech spin out companies from Sheffield University in the North of England trying to help them raise venture capital (VC) investment. I found it a real struggle to engage the interest of London-based VC funds – not because of the lack of a compelling investment proposition, but simply because Sheffield was considered to “on another planet” and the journey from London to Sheffield too onerous for our London friends. Eventually I did persuade a couple of fund managers to make the journey on the basis that I would arrange for them to see three potential investments in the one visit (a novel form of “buy one get one free”).<br />I was reminded of this story when reading a recent publication by The Northern Way entitled “Realising the £25bn Potential: Stimulating the long term private venture capital markets in the regions” (the paper can be downloaded from (<a href="http://www.thenorthernway.co.uk/downloaddoc.asp?id=650">http://www.thenorthernway.co.uk/downloaddoc.asp?id=650</a>). For those of you that aren’t aware of it, The Northern Way is an initiative (set up by John Prescott, the pugilistic ex-Deputy Prime Minister of the UK) bringing together the cities and regions of the North of England to work together to improve the sustainable economic development of the North towards the level of more prosperous regions.<br />The Northern Way report seeks to answer the following questions:<br />Why are small and medium sized companies in the North not accessing as much equity finance as they need to grow?<br />Is the North less growth orientated and entrepreneurial and more equity averse?<br />Or are the funding institutions in the South East too far from the action and fail to recognise good investment opportunities?<br />The report concludes that the UK is failing to develop the full growth potential of many of its companies because its VC businesses are too heavily concentrated in London. Geographical disparity in the spread of private VC investment means, it says, that the equity gap – the shortfall in investment funds available to businesses looking to grow – is disproportionately felt by businesses outside the greater south-east.<br />The Northern Way calls on government to make building private sector capacity in major cities outside the south east an explicit objective and to create a public-private fund to help generate activity. It recommends an approach with echoes of the old 3i model (for those of you that aren’t as old as me, 3i used to have a network of regional offices across the UK), it suggests a national network of locally based fund managers in all major UK cities, able to tap into a critical mass of public and private funding, with flexibility to act on a commercial basis, tailoring deals to local business needs.<br />The report findings certainly chime with my own experiences in the biotech sector and, as a northerner myself, I certainly have a lot of support for any initiatives to unlock the entrepreneurial potential across the UK regions. In my opinion, the UK biotech sector spends far too much time focusing on the so called golden triangle of London, Cambridge and Oxford.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5734854608874231441-630276206788506524?l=www.ithaka.co.uk%2Fblog' alt='' /></div>Paul Rodgershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02137819282161301725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5734854608874231441.post-22539931079102430082009-08-24T14:11:00.003+01:002009-08-24T14:15:47.816+01:00Sources of InnovationBiotech, like other technology based industries, is driven by innovation, much of it coming from universities and research institutions; but have you ever wondered who the innovators are? A fascinating article entitled “Give me your scientists.........” appeared in the March 7th 2009 issue of The Economist (<a href="http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13234953">http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13234953</a>).<br />According to the US census of 2000, around 47% of the PhD scientists and engineers in the US are immigrants. Immigrants accounted for two thirds of the net addition to America’s stock of such workers between 1995 and 2006. The Economist article cites a study by William Kerr, an economist at Harvard Business School, who used name-matching software to identify the ethnicity of each of the 8m scientists who had acquired an American patent since 1975 (<a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1316942">http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1316942</a>).<br />The share of all patents given to scientists of Chinese and Indian descent living in America more than tripled, from 4.1% in the second half of the 1970s to 13.9% in the years between 2000 and 2004. Nearly 40%of patents filed in 2005 by Intel were for work done by people of Chinese or Indian origin.<br />The same paper also demonstrated that when the US federal government increased the number of skilled people allowed in under the H-1B visa programme by 10%, total patenting increased by around 2%. This was driven mainly by more patenting by immigrant scientists. Surprisingly, even patenting by native scientists increased slightly, rather than decreasing as might have been expected. It seems as though immigrants stimulate native innovation, perhaps because ideas feed off each other.<br />Another paper cited in the same Economist article looked at whether emigration from the developing world harms the originating countries’ capacity for innovation. This paper (<a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1320838">http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1320838</a>) examined data on the patents cited by scientists working in India in their applications to America’s patent office. The authors conclude that proximity does matter: Indian patent applicants refer to research by scientists in India much more often than they cite work by those elsewhere.<br />So, having many scientists leave India may harm innovation there. But Indian researchers also refer to scientists of Indian origin in America more than very similar work by scientists with whom they do not share ethnic ties. A scientific diaspora may give countries of origin a leg-up in terms of access to the latest research, mitigating some of the problems of a “brain drain”. Also, given the tendency of many scientists to return to their native country at a later stage in their career, then innovation may flow back to the country of origin in due course.<br />What are the implications of this research for the UK biotech community? On the one hand, it may suggest that we should be encouraging more foreign scientists to come and work in the UK in order to stimulate innovation here (an interesting angle given the prominence of certain xenophobic factions in the recent local and European elections). It may also suggest that we should be less concerned about the perceived “brain drain” of UK scientists to the US; in the long run this may benefit UK innovation.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5734854608874231441-2253993107910243008?l=www.ithaka.co.uk%2Fblog' alt='' /></div>Paul Rodgershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02137819282161301725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5734854608874231441.post-4950763384298984892009-04-07T10:33:00.001+01:002009-05-06T16:35:22.564+01:00New models for innovation in the biotech industry<span style="font-weight: bold;">In an earlier blog I discussed the call by Sir Chris Evans and others for the British government to provide a £1 billion bail out for the UK biotech industry. The call was prompted by fears that the UK biotech industry will collapse as hundreds of companies go to the wall due to a lack of venture capital funding. I would like now to discuss alternative models for innovation in the biotech industry.</span><br /><br />The traditional UK biotech innovation model has been for an invention to be patented by an academic researcher, licensed by that researcher’s university technology transfer office to a biotech company that then develops a technology or product through to a demonstration of proof of concept (creating further intellectual property along the way) before licensing the accumulated IP package to a large company that subsequently markets the product, resulting in royalties flowing back to the biotech company and the university.<br /><br />This is a grossly simplified summary and there are of course many variations on this theme. However, a key aspect of this model is that biotech companies play a key role in taking an early stage opportunity through to a point where the big companies are willing to get involved.<br /><br />The major problem with this model is that, currently, funding for biotech companies is in short supply as investors are reluctant to part with their cash as they seek to ride out the financial storms raging across the global economy. In late February, Intercytex (a UK regenerative medicine business) announced that it was putting itself up for sale after its lead product failed in a clinical trial <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%28http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssHealthcareNews/idUSLN16839220090223">(http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssPharmaceuticals%20-%20Diversified/idUSLN16839220090223</a>). At the same time Summit, another UK biotech, announced that it had failed to secure a sufficient level of funding to continue its current business strategy and may be forced to sell itself or part of its business (<a href="http://www.scripnews.com/scripnews/business/Summits-woes-continue-as-cash-resources-dry-up-115995?autnID=/contentstore/scripnews/codex/8b0bdf26-ff6a-11dd-bc01-51f4f230b844.xml">http://www.scripnews.com/scripnews/business/Summits-woes-continue-as-cash-resources-dry-up-115995?autnID=/contentstore/scripnews/codex/8b0bdf26-ff6a-11dd-bc01-51f4f230b844.xml</a>).<br /><br />Are there alternative innovation models available? Well, yes there are some. For example, James Lyons-Weiler of the University of Pittsburgh has proposed the development of an IP Share Market through which funders could invest in IP rather than in companies (<a href="http://www.the-scientist.com/2009/02/1/28/1/">http://www.the-scientist.com/2009/02/1/28/1/</a>). He believes that direct investment in market-valued IP could dramatically increase the rate of development and technology transfer.<br />Before anyone shouts that companies would never pool their IP, let’s not forget the recent announcement by Andrew Witty, the CEO of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) that they intend to put IP that is relevant to finding drugs for neglected diseases into a "patent pool", so they can be explored by other researchers (<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/feb/13/glaxo-smith-kline-cheap-medicine">http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/feb/13/glaxo-smith-kline-cheap-medicine</a>).<br /><br />In a similar vein, it is worth examining some Israeli initiatives to deal with the funding crisis faced by its biotech industry (<a href="http://www.genengnews.com/articles/chitem.aspx?aid=2759">http://www.genengnews.com/articles/chitem.aspx?aid=2759</a>). Some of these initiatives are based on funding projects rather than businesses.<br /><br />Giza, an Israeli VC fund, introduced a pre-seed and seed-stage investment plan called the Ofek Program, a milestone-based plan in which the firm will invest no more than $500,000 in seed funding for early-stage projects being developed into commercial ventures in an incubator setting. As a project matures, if it meets established milestones, then Giza will invest additional funds. If it does not, then Giza can cut its losses. The Ofek Program also includes early investment-round funding to bring experienced entrepreneurs and managers in-house.<br /><br />A biotech incubator, BioLine Innovations Jerusalem, owned by BioLineRx (<a href="http://www.biolinerx.com/">http://www.biolinerx.com/</a>), an Israeli clinical drug development company, received a special $23 million grant from the Israeli Ministry of Trade and Industry. Unlike a traditional incubator, in which a corporate structure is built around a drug or technology, BioLineRx takes a different approach and in-licenses projects that are developed as independent programs under a single corporate structure. Successful projects can be developed further by BioLineRx or licensed out. If a project is successful, the incubator pays the government back for that project; if it is not, BioLine shuts it down.<br /><br />So, there are alternative innovation models out there and, in my view, the UK biotech sector (including government, industry, investors and the research community) needs to become much more creative in exploring new ways of commercialising innovative technology.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5734854608874231441-495076338429898489?l=www.ithaka.co.uk%2Fblog' alt='' /></div>Paul Rodgershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02137819282161301725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5734854608874231441.post-48819053250027022912009-03-31T20:24:00.000+01:002009-04-28T12:35:13.722+01:00Is the “big pharma” business model broken beyond repair?<span style="font-weight: bold;">Traditionally, the large pharmaceutical companies (“big pharma”) have focused their drug development efforts almost exclusively on the major diseases of the developed world with the aim of marketing blockbuster drugs, many of which turn out to be “me-too” products that are “improved” versions of competitor’s products. There are lots of signs that this business model no longer works.</span><br /><br />The industry is coming under increasing downward pressure on drug prices from healthcare providers as Europe and North America struggle to balance their healthcare budgets against the ever increasing medical needs of ageing populations.<br /><br />Declining R&D productivity is another significant factor. The February 27th 2009 issue of Scrip World Pharmaceutical News (<a href="http://www.scripnews.com/scripnews/home/">http://www.scripnews.com/scripnews/home/</a>) reports that 31 novel medicines were introduced for the first time somewhere in the world in 2008; in the 1990’s the annual average was 40 new active substances whereas the annual average for the last seven years has declined to only 29.<br /><br />Many leading products will go “off patent” in the next few years leading to massive sales reductions as the generics companies take advantage of the situation – at a recent conference I was told by a senior executive from one of the big pharma companies that his company was expecting to lose 35% of its revenues within three years due to patent expiries.<br /><br />Patents have long been regarded by big pharma as fundamental to their business success and they have reacted vigorously with legal actions against anyone who has sought to challenge their intellectual property. At the risk of creating considerably bad PR for themselves, they have often refused to licence their patents to low cost drug manufacturers in developing countries; we have seen repeated criticism of drug companies for failing to drop their prices for HIV drugs while millions died in Africa and Asia.<br /><br />All of this may be about to change. In an interview published in The Guardian newspaper on February 13th 2009 (<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/feb/13/glaxo-smith-kline-cheap-medicine">http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/feb/13/glaxo-smith-kline-cheap-medicine</a>), Andrew Witty, the CEO of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), announced that GSK is to radically shift its attitude to providing cheap drugs to millions of people in the developing world. He said that GSK will:<br /><ul><li>Cut its prices for all drugs in the 50 least developed countries to no more than 25% of the levels in the UK and US – and less if possible – and make drugs more affordable in middle-income countries such as Brazil and India.</li><li>Put any chemicals or processes over which it has intellectual property rights that are relevant to finding drugs for neglected diseases into a "patent pool", so they can be explored by other researchers.</li><li>Reinvest 20% of any profits it makes in the least developed countries in hospitals, clinics and staff.</li><li>Invite scientists from other companies, NGOs or governments to join the hunt for tropical disease treatments at its dedicated institute at Tres Cantos, Spain.<br /></li></ul>This interview followed on from earlier announcements that GSK planned to reduce its reliance on selling blockbuster products in the developed world and to expand its activities in emerging and less developed countries. Witty has challenged the other pharmaceutical giants to follow his lead. We wait to see if they will rise to the challenge of this bold initiative by GSK.<br /><br />In many ways, the statement about putting GSK patents into a patent pool seems to me to be the most radical proposal. This could represent a complete change in industry attitudes to patents and may have a significant impact on the process of innovation, a topic that I plan to address in a forthcoming blog.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5734854608874231441-4881905325002702291?l=www.ithaka.co.uk%2Fblog' alt='' /></div>Paul Rodgershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02137819282161301725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5734854608874231441.post-25901520565213731812009-03-03T09:15:00.000Z2009-03-03T10:39:41.492ZShould the government bail out biotech?<span style="font-weight: bold;">The biotechnology industry has joined the queue of industries pleading their “special case” for a government bail out in the current financial climate. In this article I will examine the case for the biotech industry following the examples of the banking sector and, latterly, of manufacturing industries such as the car makers.</span><p></p><p>Here in the UK, a group of luminaries led by Sir Chris Evans and Lord Drayson are making the case for the government to provide £1 billion of taxpayers’ money to a group of VC funds that would then invest the money to “save” the UK biotech industry by driving the consolidation of the myriad of small biotech firms in the UK (<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/feb/15/biotech-excalibur-evans">http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/feb/15/biotech-excalibur-evans</a>).</p><p>Even in the US there have been calls for the government to provide $10-25 billion annually to venture capital firms for investment in the biotech sector (<a href="http://www.genengnews.com/articles/chitem.aspx?aid=2760">see an article by Leslie Glick in the February 1st, 2009 issue of Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News http://www.genengnews.com/articles/chitem.aspx?aid=2760</a>). As ever, anything that the UK may be considering pales into insignificance when compared to the US!</p><p>Those of us old enough to remember what happened in the nineties when the German government attempted to promote the development of a national biotech industry by providing matching funding to encourage venture capital firms to invest in biotech start ups – lots of new companies created only for most of them to collapse a few years later when the government money ran out – might be a little wary of the current calls for government support. Perhaps surprisingly, there seems to have been little debate within the UK biotech community about the merits of the proposals put forward by Sir Chris Evans and his colleagues. More importantly, I’m not aware of any attempts to engage with the UK taxpayers to ask if they think this would be a good use of their money!<br /></p><p>The only note of dissent from within the UK biotech community appears to have come from William Bains in a typically trenchant analysis published in the February 23rd, 2009 issue of Chemistry & Industry (<a href="http://www.chemind.org/CI/index.jsp">http://www.chemind.org/CI/index.jsp</a>) . William argues that the problems faced by the European biotech industry actually have their origin in the business model adopted by European venture capital firms. He concludes that the UK government should not be bailing out a group of investors that have failed the biotech industry and that, instead, it is time to find other ways of restoring creativity and entrepreneurship to the industry.<br /></p><p>I certainly agree that we need to find alternative business models for the European biotech industry rather than simply pouring “good” taxpayers’ money after “bad”. This is a subject that I plan to return to in another blog.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5734854608874231441-2590152056521373181?l=www.ithaka.co.uk%2Fblog' alt='' /></div>Paul Rodgershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02137819282161301725noreply@blogger.com0