Monthly Archives: January 2014

National Financing tools for Entrepreneurship in Argentina, che!

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???????????????????????????????Argentina created the Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation in December 2007, with the principal goal of generating greater social inclusion and improving the competitiveness of the Argentinian economy. The current government has developed a specific National Plan of Science, Technology and Innovation for 2020. This one aims at boosting inclusive and sustainable innovation, by fully using Argentinian scientific and technological capabilities, thereby hopefully increasing economic competitiveness and improving quality of life. The strategic areas for this broad plan include biotechnology, nanotechnology, and information & communication technologies. As regards to biotechnology, a special focus is on development of agrobiotechnology, due to its relevance in economic policy (this was mentioned in my last post). Other sub-areas include health, energy and social development.

There are different national financing tools in Argentina to promote entrepreneurship in biotechnology. EMPRETECNO is a tool for developing technology-based companies and it provide non-reimbursable contributions up to $370,000 (ARS 2,500,000) per project. It can be used to finance prototype construction, for commercial expansion and for technology development. Some of the beneficiaries include BIOPRO, which is developing biological pesticides; Vetanco, a platform for IgY production; and MIPAMA, a cell culture facility for human and veterinary applications. Also benefiting from EMPRETECNO is Keclon, which aims to produce recombinant enzymes for biofuel development, and Immunogenesis, which is developing an immunoassay to diagnose specific causes of women infertility. There is also Xbio, working on a recombinant HPV vaccine.

Another tool for entrepreneurs is the Programme for the Promotion of Entrepreneur Investment in Technology (PROFIET), which can be used on projects that improve competitiveness of the production sector. Beneficiaries may be venture capitalists, other investors or entrepreneurs. In a complementary way, there are specific financing tools for research, development and innovation (R&D&i), including non-reimbursable contributions for the process of patenting, developing R&D&i areas in companies, developing technology platforms and for sustainable development. There is also funding for regional technological innovation, to promote R&D&i in specific geographic areas, and for international cooperation.

All these national financing tools are devoted to promote technology-based companies and the investment of venture capital for the social development of the Argentinian people. But there is a final goal to generate sustained growth through the diversification of exports and an increase in the added value of production, strengthening the local economy.  Both of these absolutely include the biotech industry.

In my next blog, I’ll focus on foreign investment for biotech.

Mariana Aris

Q&A with CombImmune’s co-founder

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10Jason Yonehiro is a co-founder of CombImmune, a Stanford University startup that hopes to develop immunotherapies and diagnostics for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Jason comes from a sales and marketing background, with prior experience at Amgen, Celgene, Boehringer Ingelheim, and more. I spoke with him about his experiences as a first-time biotech entrepreneur.

 

Gene Kym: What can aspiring entrepreneurs do now to prepare for starting a company one day?

Jason Yonehiro: Really understand your technology and know if it has merit in the real world. Young science entrepreneurs who have spent their entire career sheltered in a lab don’t really understand how the biotechnology industry works. It’s important to “get out of the building,” as Steve Blank says, and find those potential customers to help validate your idea.

 

GK: Can you give some detailed pointers as to how academic scientists can do this?

JY: As a budding entrepreneur there are so many unknown unknowns, so the more you can validate your product against an existing pain point in the market, the better you’ll be prepared. This includes speaking with your advisors, attending careers fairs, reading industry news and publications, attending conferences, etc.  Heck, create your own meet up.

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Challenging Israel

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abstractIsraeli biotech could soon be playing a much greater role in finding health solutions for the world’s poorest peoples.

A new government-funded initiative, modeled after the Canadian Grand Challenges (CGC) and called Grand Challenges Israel (more information here), was launched January 19. Dr. Peter Singer, who heads the $235 million Canadian program and who has been advising the Israeli government on its nascent plans, noted in a recent talk in Israel that some Israeli technologies were already being widely used in the developing world, but said that “the potential for applying them to healthcare was not yet tapped in a systematic way.”

The goal of the CGC program, which is similar to the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiated by the Gates Foundation, is to spur scientists and companies to come up with innovative ideas that can improve healthcare in the developing world. Twice a year, the Canadian government-funded program selects, on a competitive basis, about 100 proposals and provides them with $100,000 in proof-of-concept grants. Other CGC programs provide larger matching grants for more mature technologies.

Some recent grantees include a rapid, highly sensitive single diagnostic assay for active, latent and drug-resistant Tuberculosis, developed at GIOSTAR Research in India; biomarkers for diagnosis of infectious diseases in children suffering from malnutrition from the Kenya Medical Research Institute; a simple yeast-based blood screening assay from the University of Toronto; and the analysis of anti-diabetic compounds in opuntia plant species and camel milk in arid and semi-arid lands of Kenya at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute.

The Canadian program spends about $55 million a year to support the innovative programs. Applicants must be either Canadians or residents of developing countries. Grand Challenges Israel, however, will be giving grants of up to 500,000 shekels for proof of concept, with a first deadline of  March 31, 2014.

“Some of the Grand Challenge projects have moved quite quickly from lab to the field,” noted Dr. Singer, citing as an example a high-throughput approach to discover a new dengue vaccine that is already undergoing small field trials in Vietnam and is close to public health use.

Dr. Singer’s talk took place under the auspices of the Pears Innovation for International Development Program at Tel Aviv University and IsraelDev. Dr. Aliza Belman Inbal, who heads the TAU program, noted that there is a “huge potential for applying Israeli know-how to the needs of the developing world.”

Bernard Dichek

3 years in Bogota; a 3-path strategy

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3It has been three-and-a-half years since I moved to Bogota as a faculty member at University of los Andes. I remember that when I first started here, almost everybody said my ideas about fabricating microsystems and electronics for biochemical applications were sci-fi, and that there was little hope about their feasibility. Nowadays, we are a successful research team at the microelectronics research center (CMUA) called biomicrosystems, and one of the pioneer groups focused on innovation and entrepreneurship in Colombia.

Our research centers on microsystems, especially those related with microfluidics, along with the development of sensors and biosensors for food monitoring and environmental control. In this field, researchers and students from different backgrounds and expertise work together. It’s common to see engineers from electronics, mechanics, mechatronics, environmental, civil, computing, and beyond working with artists, designers, biologists and microbiologists, physicists, chemists and even anthropologists on any of our projects. Due to the diversity of the group, our strategy is to train each member of our team in one of three paths: Research, development, and industry/market application. The first path is for students and researchers who want to follow a straight scientific career, understanding that about 70% of their results will not solve the problem they are targeting. This path has high risk and is long term, but a high remuneration if the research is successfully translated. The second path, development of equipment and technology, is for those interested in solving inner needs of the group, such as coming up with new and specialized equipment, or discovering methods that ease the work of the people involved in the first path. This path has a medium risk and a middle-term development, but moderate remuneration. The third path is for those eager to bring our new developments and technology to the real world, via the industry or start up. These people aim to transfer inventions or technologies into an attractive product for the industry. It requires an understanding of the industrial sector and the ability to transform our inventions into something solid, tangible and sellable.

This three-path strategy has worked for our group, making it possible to do research and still offer a brochure of products and developments. But behind the scenes, there is a more powerful strategy, one involving know-how transfer. In our research line we have identified those things we know how to do, and we have transferred that knowledge to everyone in the group. Thus, if someone needs to use a certain technique, that technique is then taught to everyone, independent of their background, age, and time in the group. The only commitment after receiving the training is that you will then train others. In that sense, even I, the “boss,” may have to be supervised on certain techniques if I am not fully trained. This model helps us train young students in a short time, and allows them to create a positive impact in our research.

Recently, Sara, a grad student in our development path, trained three 18-year-old undergrads in the use of her in-house microscope equipment and the fabrication of microfluidic channels. These students (guided by Sara), then produced artificial transparent muscle arteries for studying optimal mixing condition of blood and serum. The goal was to produce transparent artificial arteries, which medical researchers could use to explore properly injecting serum or a drug into the bloodstream and tracking the mixing pattern. Our three undergrads were trained in three months and were capable of fabricating and analyzing their results in about the same time. After six months of hard work, they submitted and presented their work at the Pan American Health Care Exchanges, an initiative originally initiated in cooperation with PAHO (Pan American Health Organization) and WHO (World Health Organization). These three students now have a place in our industry/market application path.

These results could not be better: three of our youngest students and future researchers presented their first work at an international conference at the age of 18, our in-house equipment is being used each day by more people, and we are producing a generation of students and researchers who think innovation is a path that anyone can follow in any field.

Johann F. Osma

 

 

 

Straight from Russia

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RussiaHappy New Year to everybody reading my first post on Trade Secrets! 2013 was a successful, rewarding and promising year for many of us in biotech. In particular, it was another year of a double-digit growth in Russia. Russia’s healthcare market is expected to reach US$100 billion in 2014 with over US$30 billion spent on pharmaceuticals. This is being driven by a growing economy, as well as both foreign and local private investments, and increasing support from the Russian government. Major Big Pharma players have realized the potential in Russia and collectively have recently announced their plans to invest over US$1 billion into manufacturing facilities (the group includes Novartis, AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk, and Takeda) and to seek partnerships here.

Yet there is a problem: there are opportunities in Russia for the international VC community, for start-ups, for academics and for small and medium enterprises, but few know it. With this blog I plan to demystify and rationalize Russian’s success story, as well as compete with the usual Russian-related headlines concerning Putin’s ‘vigorous torso’, controversy around anti-gay propaganda, exclusive interviews with Pussy Riot and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, as well as the lack of snow in Olympic Sochi. It may be an overly ambitious goal, but I hope this blog will be timely and helpful for readers.

I am a strong believer in coupling the attractive, vast US biotech world and the sizeable smart money found in Russia. I am the Managing Partner at RMI Partners, a private VC firm overseeing the largest Central and Eastern European (CEE)-based global Life Sciences VC fund, valued at US$500 million, backed by the Russian State RUSNANO Corporation. Since being created in 2012, we’ve completed 9 VC investments in the US with our strategic partner, Domain Associates. We are also managing a major investment by RUSNANO and Domain Associates into NovaMedica.

I’d like to focus on the implications of Russia/CEE/BRIC developments toward the major markets of US and Europe, especially where I have a practical angle.

  • How to attract funding from Russia? This includes Russian Life Sciences VC firms investing globally, family offices open to biotech and Russian non-dilutive funding opportunities.
  • What’s happening across borders? How and what is being done between international partners, and who are best and most reliable partners? This will cover research collaborations, clinical trials, major licensings and IP transfers.
  • How and what products could be brought to Russia? What are the local gaps and unmet needs in the healthcare space?
  • The start-up environment in Russia. Who are the emerging leaders, what are the promising investment opportunities, where are the best talents and ideas, and what are the State initiatives?
  • What is Big Pharma doing? I’ll take a look at M&A and partnership activity in CEE/BRIC countries.

I welcome feedback and your competing idealistic visions and especially practical proposals! I’ll be blogging here and you can comment below, but I can also be reached via Twitter at @biotechDNA or on LinkedIn.

I’m guessing that next week would be busy for many of you. Me, too: I’ll be trying to survive the JP Morgan healthcare conference. But I’ll post again here soon with some observations (and facts).

Anton Gopka

Quilmes National University and Tech Transfer

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gapThe Quilmes National University (UNQ) was founded in 1989, 17km south of Buenos Aires City. One of its first courses was a degree in biotechnology, and the university had an early attitude of being willing to entertain several uncoordinated entrepreneurial initiatives coming from both students and faculty. This attitude extended to technology transfer and applied research.

Fairly quickly the university started developing patents, offering consultancy services and creating technology-based firms. By 2004, the UNQ had created an official technology transfer program. This program, presently an Innovation and Technology Transfer Office, was intended to strengthen its core of bio-businesses, processes management and technology transfer abilities. Since then, the UNQ has deepened its efforts to increase awareness of technology transfer issues.

The technology transfer office realized that younger researchers, advanced students and fellowship recipients wanted courses on business topics, wanting to drive themselves towards industry and business. The university understood that it needed to respond to changes in governments, business, and civic life, and it committed to facilitating dialogue between the main actors in tech transfer, and to raising awareness about the relation among biotechnology and businesses.

The university began to encourage meetings between the department of science and technology, with the economy and administration department. This resulted, for the first time, in two disciplines of higher education developing a new postgraduate program: The Biotechnology, Industry and Business executive program.

This program has an online course that mainly aims at deploying knowledge skills, reviewing   the state of the art and trends in biotech business, problem-solving actions in the biotech industry, approaches to main management trends, strategic management and core business ethos, and knowledge transfer. The program meant to the gap between industry and university. It is addressed to candidates coming from biotechnology, business, academic and also manufacturing.

This period of change at UNQ has strengthened the support of students and faculty entrepreneurial initiatives, it has created a technology transfer office and a learning program. The gap between industry and university is getting smaller.

Dario Codner