International Organization Joining Pharma And Academia Brings Opportunity To Boston
By Trisha Gladd, Editor, Life Science Connect
In 2013, the popular Cambridge, MA, neighborhood, Kendall Square, was already home to locations for billion dollar companies like Google, Microsoft, and IBM. However, a real estate boom had resulted in new construction that, once completed, would come close to $2 billion. These plans included research buildings for some of pharma’s biggest names, including Pfizer and Novartis.
At that time, Dr. Batula Lesher, a scientific program manager at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), was a postdoctoral associate working on Parkinsons’ disease at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research (located in Kendall Square). When the news reached her that one of these new buildings would be dedicated to neuroscience research, she saw an amazing opportunity to connect her experience and knowledge with that of industry experts. “After speaking with some of the experts from these companies, I began to realize not just how the close proximity offered a potential for academia to connect with industry, but also how important that collaboration could be,” she explains.
Decreased funding from the National Institute of Health (NIH) had limited what she could do with her studies, but she knew working with a major pharmaceutical company could mean new resources and possibilities for both organizations. “There were certain things we were doing that we thought we might be able offer them guidance on,” she says. “And there were things they were doing at larger scales that we most likely would never be equipped to do.” As a result, Dr. Lesher has invested heavily in building relationships with these and other local biotech firms and pharmaceutical companies, connections which ultimately catalyzed diverse academia-industry partnerships in Kendall Square.
It was this experience that she carried with her when she sat down at her first meeting with the Biotech Connection, a non-profit organization focused on bringing academia and industry professionals in healthcare and the life sciences together. She had received an email to sit in on the meeting, and after learning more about their mission, Dr. Lesher felt compelled to attend. She knew from her own recent experiences that connecting industry and academia could be huge for not just the development of new treatments, but also for the patients who need them. Upon attending, she was so impressed with the organization that she later accepted a position as their director of strategic advancement. “Pharmaceutical companies need to invest in these partnerships, so they can catch technology and innovation in academia early and then help develop it,” she says. “Biotech Connection allows industry to do this in a way I don’t think industry could accomplish through its own efforts.”
A Meeting Of Minds
As part of their effort to facilitate these connections, the Biotech Connections has started hosting events on the MIT campus where both members of academia and industry meet to listen to a panel of experts discuss a specific topic of interest. The topics for these events vary, but they are often based around an existing trend in industry or a specific area of study. “What we’re trying to do is break down the obstacles and provide a place where both sides can feel comfortable asking very poignant, critical questions,” explains Vincent Chan, research scientist at MIT and president of the Biotech Connection in Boston.
The ultimate goal for the events is to have an equal number of industry and academia in attendance, and after only a few months, they have nearly accomplished this. Despite the challenge of generating the attention and interest of pharmaceutical companies, their last event had close to 600 registrants, with up to 40 percent of them from industry. Past event topics have included a discussion on the biotech boom, personal genomes and genetic engineering, biotech ventures, and wearable tech. On September 15th, they will host an event about organs-on-chips. These are microchips that mimic a normal human environment and could one day be a qualified alternative to traditional animal testing. Experts from the Wyss Institute at Harvard, Emulate (start-up pioneers of organs-on-chips), and Johnson & Johnson will sit on a panel to discuss the technology and take questions from the audience.
As of right now, Biotech Connection’s events are free of charge, which makes them even more appealing. After all, after you factor in a conference pass, flights, and hotel, the cost to send members of an organization, especially multiple members, to an industry conference can become very expensive. For Big Pharma, this may not be as big a deal, but for smaller companies, these events serve as a chance to save money without missing out on important networking opportunities.
Experts in pharma do not always seek out academic partners beyond the walls of an innovation center or industry conference, but these interactions are crucial to the future of drug development. By taking advantage of Biotech Connection’s reach within academia, pharmaceutical companies have access to untapped potential in a talent pool that includes brilliant minds from all over the world. And as the pressure to come up with new ways to treat a broader spectrum of diseases at the lowest cost possible increases, organizations like the Biotech Connection may be the answer pharma is looking for.