The National Institutes of Health Commercialization Training program kicked off on a high note with two workshops in October, one in Newport Beach, CA and the other in Sterling, VA, officially commencing the program.  The 127 participating companies gathered at the workshops to hear from life science industry leaders, including strategic alliance personnel from Baxter, Genzyme Invitrogen, Medtronic and Pfizer. The companies were provided real world knowledge and expert advice on a variety of commercialization topics, including financing, strategic alliances and strategic positioning and marketing. Venture capitalists, angels, as well as IP experts were present and provided valuable opinions and insights on some of the most difficult challenges that early stage life science startups are facing as they take their technologies to market.

The NIH SBIR program, the life blood of hundreds of startups, has had a great impact on the development of science and technology with incredible prospects of improving healthcare in the nation. The CAP takes the SBIR effort one step further, working with companies to spawn a successful business out of their science and to see their efforts lead to commercial fruition. The need for such a program is echoed in one of the participating company’s response to the CAP, who states, “…it provides the opportunity for SBIR companies to genuinely make something of themselves and is may ensure that all of the NIH SBIR funding makes sense. Too many good ideas might die on the shelf without the type of business expertise that CAP and Larta gives to a small company like ours.”

Right (left to right): Joanna Schulman of Thallo Bioscience, Murali Prahalad of Invitrogen & Norm Brown of Innovations Group addressing Strategic Positioning.
 

There is something to gain for everybody in the CAP. A company in the earlier stages of commercialization is mentored in the basics of business model and business plan development. Advanced companies that are closer to exit are provided access to angels, VCs, and licensing and strategic alliance partners. Perhaps the most unique and effective element of the CAP is the access that companies have to the expert advisors engaged in the program; life science and business experts that work one-on-one with the companies through the course of the program. As one participating company states, "My advisor was very responsive, good at listening and discussing various options along with helping to identify paths that would fit our organization...I think that [she] has the ability to help sort out which options may work for us," demonstrating that the advisors feedback is invaluable to the success of the participating companies.

 Below: Attendees listen to insights on financing emerging life sciences.

The workshop in October was just the beginning for these companies. For the next seven months, the companies will work diligently with Larta advisors and complete program deliverables. Business models will be transformed, marketing strategies implemented, contacts with industry and the investment community will be established and finally, technologies will be showcased at the culminating event of the program, The NIH Life Sciences Showcase in San Francisco on May 1&2, 2007. The event will be held alongside Larta’s Venture Forum, attracting hundreds of investors and industry personnel. But most of all, what emerges by the end of the program, is a network of companies, all faced with the same challenge of converting research into revenue and seeing their science penetrate larger markets; just better equipped, one step closer to success and a whole lot more confident!

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