NEW PARADIGMS IN SUCCESSFULLY CROSSING BORDERS

PART I

Remember the quaint term the British Isles? This author hasn’t heard it used in decades.  Now two new business models have emerged from this region, one in Scotland, the other Ireland.    Each has the potential to dramatically change the paradigms of the tech transfer process and related issues by creating new ways in which innovations can find commercial exits.  If these two models are successful, quaint may become the term used to describe all commercialization efforts prior to these ideas.

The Scottish solution/model is called the Proof of Concept Programme (PoCP).  The Irish solution/model is called the International Centre for Local and Regional Development (ICLRD).  Each concept is unique and has been successfully applied locally (meaning within the country of origin).   

Proof of Concept Programme (PoCP)  -- The tag line for the PoCP is “Driving Innovation from Lab to Global Marketplace”, a noble, if not lofty, ambition and promise.  The PoCP focuses on pre-VC stage development, and its objective is to fund early stage development activity within Scotland’s Universities and Research Institutes. 

PoCP is delivered by Scottish Enterprise, a government economic development entity rather than a university. The funding process includes two stages of due diligence, performed by expert panels including representatives from the private sector, The applicants must prove their concept will have a positive outcome for Scotland.  Only about ¼ of the concepts submitted, pass muster.  This process differs significantly from the traditional university system in the US, where most ideas go through the patent process to either please (or appease) the professor who put forth the concept, or because there’s no time to properly perform due diligence.

In the PoCP system, once the concept passes the first round of scrutiny, the scientist who’s concept it is, is given feedback on its commercial proposition and four to six weeks to further develop it.  This is the second stage and it’s where the program gets really interesting.  During this period, the scientist as well as the technology is assessed.  The PoCP is looking for an attitude in the scientist.  Can they make the switch from the university environment to a business culture?  Or are they going to prove themselves arrogant and stubborn?  More applications fail due to weaknesses in the commercialization plan than in the technology. This program may, indeed, prove to be a magic bullet, because this is the pivotal juncture where many businesses fail.

This period also gives the scientist time to figure out if they really have what it takes to leave the womb of the university environment, where they may be a star, and become part of a team in a totally alien culture to them.  The scientist may learn a lot about themself in this process, for instance, that they are, or are not cut out to go into the business world of the start-up company.  The Principal Investigators are not required to joining a new company but they must understand that PoC is not an academic grant and that they must commit to the intensive and long term time process of commercialization well beyond the PoC funding.

Looking past the scientist, other elements of the process are designed for success as well.  The PoCP is developing a ‘technology bundling’ strategy to maximize economic impact of its life science portfolio. The idea is to take six or more projects in the same sector or sub-sector, and bunch them all together to form a fledgling company.  This technology bundling is done to give the company critical mass – just enough to take at least one or two projects into the clinic. This bundling strategy was developed by biotech business experts including Howard Marriage and Ron James, both of whom are working on business plans for new companies as a result. Ron James has a background in venture capital with Prudential and is the former chief executive officer of PPL Therapeutics, the Scottish biotech firm that helped create Dolly the sheep and went on to list on the London Stock Exchange. He is currently leading formation of a drug discovery company based on multiple PoCP projects. Howard Marriage has a background in senior and executive positions in research management, business and corporate development with Genzyme during its growth from early 1980’s start up to international product- based healthcare company and with Scottish start-up oncology company Cyclacel through the $120m funding rounds that were used to build the clinical pipeline and NASDAQ listing. He is advising on the formation of a new Scottish-based oncology company with the potential for early revenues from services, as well as a clinical and research product pipeline.

The knowledge gap at this point in the company’s development, is beyond the experience of the founding scientist.  So the PoCP does everything it can to make the scientist/founder a success.  They supply the project manager, and mentors who have themselves successfully founded a company and brought it to fruition. 

The point is to build a sustainable company.  If there’s no commercialization at the end of the road, the scientist won’t get funded again. 

The PoCP was launched in 1999 following the recommendations of the Knowledge Economy Taskforce, whose remit was to provide a strategy for improving academic/industry collaboration in Scotland .  The rationale for setting up PoCP was to address a gap in the availability of funding support for developing Scottish academic research into commercialisable products and services.

Eleanor Taylor, a chartered accountant who worked with KPMG in the 1980’s has headed up the Programme since its inception in 1999. Most of her working life has been spent in economic development with Scottish Enterprise focusing on investment and company creation/growth and internally on strategy and organizational development. She has developed a strong partnership approach with the academic, investment and government communities to the extent that she was recently voted the first non academic committee member of UNICO, the UK version of AUTM. The Proof of Concept team are on the frequent presenters list of what other countries want to know more about. The Programme has already been copied in other parts of the UK and now they’re advising some other European areas.

“I have one of the best jobs in Scotland. Not only do I work with clever people and fascinating technology every day; I really feel that I have a job that makes a difference and where I can see the outputs. Already the programme has funded technology which led to the creation of MTEM (an energy company and details available if required) the largest spin-out company from a Scottish University (Edinburgh,)” notes Taylor.

The Life Sciences portfolio is one of the strongest with 56 projects funded in:  

• platform diagnostics
• disease-specific diagnostics  
• therapeutics
• drug discovery platforms and services
• biomanufacturing
• agriculture
• devices

Other sectors involved in the PoCP program are digitial media, energy, food and drink, forest industry, micro- and opto-electronic technologies, software and e-business, and tourism.