Innovation is at the Heart of Human Health
This year is the 57th anniversary of the polio vaccine which was introduced in 1955. Why does this matter to people alive in 2012?
Innovation is at the heart of human health and the eradication of preventable disease. In 1916, the United States was in the midst of one of the worst polio epidemics in history. The disease came without warning and because of its mild flu-like symptoms many children died and/or were paralyzed overnight. Doctors and parents were horrified; feeling helpless in preventing such tragic outcomes. In that same year, Jonas Salk was two years old and living in New York City with his parents. Salk was born to Jewish parents of immigrants from Russia. He came from humble roots and had no social advantages.
Polio was considered to be the most serious public health problem in the post-war United States. In fact, the longest serving President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, suffered from the debilitating effects of polio and this lead to the disease having a high profile as a research project. In 1955, as a result of Salk’s research work, the polio vaccine was first introduced.
Now that polio is eradicated in the United States, and throughout most of the world, the human population suffers from other diseases which have risen in prominence. Cancer, heart disease, diabetes are all new killers. These new killers are challenging society and governments to find new ways to improve human health. Innovation is essential to the eradication of these diseases and research is ongoing around the world with this purpose in mind.
What has changed from Salk’s day is that innovation has become a global activity and solutions are coming forward from unexpected places. New life science companies are being formed in the USA and Canada, Europe, Asia, Latin America and elsewhere, and each new company channels innovation and the fruits of research into a global marketplace.
In 1999, TVG developed C21 BioVentures™ (C21) conference in order to tap into the incredible innovation that happens in the northern California region. C21 was termed an “engine of innovation” best symbolized by a virtual place termed Silicon Valley. C21 continues to showcase innovation. Come to Napa, California and meet this year’s innovators. Experience how C21 taps into the breadth of skill, experience and knowledge found in Silicon Valley, and vested in universities such as Berkeley, Stanford and UCSF; venture capital companies on Sand Hill Road in Palo Alto and elsewhere in the Bay Area; young start-up companies and mature biotechs which have now become divisions of big pharma companies, such as Genentech/Roche and Chiron/Novartis.
The anniversary of the introduction of the polio vaccine is an important milestone, because it shows that disease can be eradicated by a concerted effort to solve a specific problem. We live in a world that has been created by the application of science and technology. Nearly everything we use in our daily lives is the product of scientific thinking. The computer I am writing on; the electricity that powers it; the internet that will deliver this blog; the lights overhead in my office; the automobile that brought me to work, and on and on. And yet, the great innovations and the scientists, inventors, entrepreneurs, and investors who have all created the technology that feeds, clothes and houses us, are almost invisible to the general public.
When innovation and action are combined, to solve specific social problems, it is amazing what can be done. The history of science has many examples. Salk left another legacy which is not widely known. His sole focus was to develop a safe and effective vaccine as quickly as possible, without any interest in personal profit. When Salk was asked in a television interview who owned the patent to the vaccine, Salk remarked “There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?”
Who do you think will be the next Jonas Salk? Where will he/or she, come from?
Dr. Robert Lee Kilpatrick
Partner, TVG
Ola Brazil: Latin America’s BIGGEST Market Accelerates
Brazil is familiar territory to the pharmaceutical industry, which has been operating in the country for decades. Today, with its stronger economic outlook, political stability, and a public healthcare system that gives all residents access to basic treatment, Brazil offers great expansion opportunities to companies.
According to a report from Cutting Edge Information, Emerging Markets Clinical Development Series, Brazil is on the verge of emerging into a world power, perhpas even surpassing the other BRIC countries (Russia, India, and China). It is already the largest market in Latin America, representing 38% of the market compared with 21% for Mexico, 16% for Venezuela, and 9% for Argentina.
Brazil’s healthcare spending represents almost 8% of GDP, and of its population of nearly 200 million people, 20% have private insurance and make us both private and public-health services.
- Kim Ribbink
PharmaVoice Magazine, PharmaVoice
To read the full article, please click here:
http://www.pharmavoice.com/pdfs/2011/pv-0111/PV0111_OlaBrazil.pdf
About PharmaVoice
PharmaVOICE magazine, reaching more than 25,000 BPA-qualified life-sciences executives, is the forum that allows business leaders to engage in a candid dialogue on the challenges and trends impacting the industry. PharmaVOICE provides readers with insightful and thought-provoking commentary in a multiple-perspective format through forums, topics, and articles covering a range of issues from molecule through market. PharmaVOICE subscribers are also kept abreast of the latest trends and information through additional media resources, including WebLinx Interactive WebSeminars, Podcasts, Videocasts, White Papers, E-Surveys and e-Alerts. Additionally, PharmaVOICEMarketplace.com provides a comprehensive directory of products, services, and solutions for the life-sciences industry.
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BioPartnering and Julia Child
Recently I saw the film “Julie/Julia” which is about the life of the famous chef and teacher Julia Child, and a modern woman (Julie) who commits to preparing all the recipes in the book “Mastering The Art of French Cooking, Volume One” in one year. The film is very enjoyable and I recommend it highly. Afterward, it occurred to me that partnering is a lot like cooking, in that various distinct ingredients are required to make a delicious meal, or successful partnership. To compare two merged biotech companies, or a licensing deal between a big pharma company and a small biotech company, to boeuf bourguignon may seem to be a stretch of the imagination. Yet for this dish to be successful at the dinner table, it is necessary to have the right ingredients added at the proper time, according to specific conditions. This is exactly how to create successful life science company partnerships. Life science partnering, or “BioPartnering”, which is a term first used by our company TVG in 1993 at the world’s first meeting dedicated to this function (BioPartnering Europe), has now become one of the most important ways that biotech and pharma companies can grow in 2009. It is now widely accepted in Europe, North America and Japan that BioPartnering deals make sense. But we must be wary about taking things for granted, as Julia Child found in 1950 when she contemplated creating a French cookbook for Americans. The problem she faced was that French cooking relied on having servants to do much of the preparatory work, and most Americans then, as now, did not have servants to rely upon. She had to create a new interpretation of French cooking, for servant-less Americans, and this is her first great innovation. In the world of BioPartnering, 25 years ago, it was uncommon for European and American/Canadian pharma and biotech companies to partner. Most people spent their entire careers working for the same company, especially the larger ones such as Merck, Pfizer, and others with household names who have since merged and disappeared from our lexicon. TVG had to work closely and carefully with life science companies to help demonstrate how BioPartnering could drive innovation, increase efficiencies and effectiveness at pharma and biotech companies, over the past 20 years. Over time, BioPartnering became a primary driver of innovation in this industry, and in many ways has used partnering more effectively than any other industry. It may be argued that the computer industry and the automotive industry would have changed much faster if partnering had been incorporated as dramatically as in the life science industry. The decline of companies such as GM and Chrysler, are examples of a mind-set based on “not invented here”. Looking ahead, this blog will carry my personal views on what BioPartnering is, how it is being practiced, and how specific BioPartnering deals are driving innovation around the world. As I travel in Europe, Asia, North America, Latin America, Australia/New Zealand, I will present and analyse these trends. From a US, European or Japanese perspective, where there is a sense among the chattering classes that we are world leaders in technology innovation, I share a word of caution. The rest of the world is catching up, has caught up, and in some cases moved ahead in many crucial areas of innovation. There are huge opportunities contained in this situation for everyone. As I write this blog on August 28th, 2009, I am faced with a task not unlike that which faced Julia Child in 1950: to redefine a body of knowledge and specific practices (in her case French cooking) for a new audience much in need of guidance. In my case, to show that BioPartnering is now a global phenomenon and here to stay. It will find unique applications in India, in China, Brasil and Russia and everywhere else where life science entrepreneurs are to be found. I look forward to sharing my observations with you as a “biotech gadfly”.
Dr. Robert Lee Kilpatrick- Biotech Gadfly TVG LLC
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia “Gadfly” is a term for people who upset the status quo by posing upsetting or novel questions, while at the same time being accepted as a description of honorable work or a civic duty.
