The glue between Partners & Alliances - 2010 Biopartnering Study

We are in the process of developing our BioPartnering 2010 study. The study examines three areas:

1. Deal Sourcing: - Proactively sourcing for the best deals and enabling prospective partners to easily access the pharma company; building a reputation for being a “Partner of Choice”
2. Deal Making: - Trust building, due diligence, valuation, negotiation and contracting
3. Alliance Management: - Realizing value through the creation and execution of an alliance business plan, organization and governance arrangements

The study surveys companies in the biopharma industry and delivers three tangible outputs:

• Fresh thinking - every study builds on the last and new insights are derived every time we run this. One key area of focus is always on what did "outperformers" do that the "underperformers" did not.
• Scoring for Companies that participate in the study - Top 5 rankings for each of the three areas we study (Merck and Genentech were the only companies in the 2008 study that made top 5 ranking for all three areas).
• Drivers of Alliance Formation - Understanding what motivates interest in a deal. The "Deal on offer", not suprisingly, is the most important; however what else drives the deal?

In preparation for this year's study I have been doing some research and took time to read Stefan Lindegaard's blog. In his most recent posting he responds to an open innovation posting from John Hagel and John Seely Brown. The nugget I really caught onto was at the end of his posting.

He refers to a talk given by Peter Erickson who leads the innovation efforts at General Mills. General Mills have been leaders in the open innovation field along with companies such as P&G (Connect & Develop) and IBM. He writes in his blog "The next practices of open innovation will be about developing systems, enablers, and processes that speed the connection to innovation partners in a repeatable, cost effective, quick way".

Open innovation is not a new practice. In fact Professor Chesbrough first coined the term back in 2003. So my hypothesis is that outperformers in the biopharma industry have mature processes and systems for the operation of their alliances and collaborations.... not just the scouting and deal making aspects.

Therefore in the 2010 study we will aim to evaluate this hypothesis; we will examine the maturity of systems, enablers and processes and see if they are at a level where one could describe them as "repeatable, cost effective, and fast"?

Check out the 2008 study titled "A Marriage of Minds" and a related publication "The Power of Many" to understand the ABCs of collaboration.

Innovation - New Life Sciences Collaboratory from IBM

I have been a fan of the collaboratory model since I first learned of it. However I wasn't able to really share a life sciences example. Until this week. IBM, the University of Melbourne and the Victorian government today announced a new IBM Research Collaboratory for Life Sciences, located in Melbourne, Australia. The collaboratory is IBM’s first life sciences collaboratory, and IBM’s first collaboratory in the southern hemisphere. It will use high-performance computing – including IBM’s BlueGene super computer – to advance biological sciences and medical research.

Collaboratory Goals
The collaboration is dedicated to dramatic improvements in human health through technology innovation in medical diagnostics, drug discovery and drug design, underpinned by a deep understanding of disease. The collaboratory will use data and high-performance computing to model biological systems in order to accelerate research and treatments for conditions such as cancer and neurological disease.

Scientists from VLSCI and IBM Research will work to accelerate the translation of our fundamental understanding of biology to improvements in medical care and health outcomes, with projects such as:

• Medical Imaging and Neuroscience: high performance computers are used to analyse images from the devices such as MRI, PET and the synchrotron.
• Clinical Genomics: the identification of combinations of genes implicated in disease and the ability to predict susceptibility to disease and treatment outcome from an individual’s genome and medical history.
• Structural Biology: understanding the structure and shape of biological macromolecules, fundamental to pharmaceutical discovery.
• Integrated Systems Biology: understanding and modelling the dynamic behaviour of complex systems, from genes, proteins, cells, tissues and organs to organisms.

What is the bottom line?

By bringing computation to medical research, breakthroughs in diagnosis and treatment can be achieved much quicker. What may have taken two years or more using traditional computational and wet laboratory techniques can be achieved in a matter of days or weeks.

See more on this youtube video....

Great Articles to start the year off

Nature magazine ended the year with a great article from Bernard Munos of Lilly. His retrospective look at 60 years of innovation in the industry crunches a ton of data and provides some support for beliefs held by many Industry Leaders as well as numerous new perspectives.

The article is titled "Lessons from 60 years of pharmaceutical innovation" . I highly recommend it! (more from Bernard on youtube speaking at the CIP Forum in September 2009 - link here)

The second is also from Nature... 2020 Visions. Gary Pisano (Harvard Business School Professor and author of Science Business) put some pithy views together in an easy read that stimulates the grey matter.

Enjoy and Happy New Year!

"Cloudy" Forecast for Clinical Cloud

Despite the odd title, the future of IBM's clinical cloud is clear blue!

Linked to this post is an interview that Paul Papas and I did with Kevin Davies. Paul Papas, runs IBM’s life sciences consulting group. Paul started the interview by explaining what IBM means by "smarter" and I included it in the blog here as I think this is a great way to understand the way IBM is thinking about the future in Life Sciences.

Paul Papas: "I’m sure you’ve seen our ‘Smarter Planet’ TV ads. The key message is: the way we live and interact in the world today is unsustainable... To be ‘smarter’ about how we do things we need to implement processes and solutions that are more instrumented, interconnected, and intelligent. Likewise, the way that many life sciences companies operate and perform today is unsustainable. They need to be ‘smarter’ about three things. 1) Innovate smarter, to find new products and therapies to bring to market. 2) Engage smarter, to change how they engage with customers and to figure out their future role in the health care ecosystem. And 3) Operate smarter, change their fundamental operating models and look beyond their four walls to drive maximum efficiency and cost savings. When you think about those things—Innovate smarter, engage smarter, operate smarter—cloud computing is the perfect enabler to operating ‘smarter.’

Link to the full article here

The Frontiers of R&D Business Models

Rush out and buy Business Week today is you want to learn more about the Research business model that fuels IBM.

BusinessWeek's Steve Hamm tells John A. Byrne that the research of tomorrow won't be limited by national boundaries and covers the Big Blue Lab.

J&J has the iPhone in it's strategy

J&J clearly have Health 2.0 ambitions with the iPhone. At the launch of the iPhone 3.0 operating system, Anita Mathew from LifeScan presented a groundbreaking lifestyle prototype iPhone app with tools to simplify diabetes management. Check out the youtube video at this link. Or watch it here:

One prototype though is not where they have stopped. They also have another site which is live and the app is real. The iPhone app is available through the strength for caring website. The app called CareConnect is application designed for caregivers. It gives them helpful tools and also attempts to build community for those who can feel lonely in their care giving efforts. The best part is neither of these apps share data with J&J or actively driving more product for J&J - but the use of these apps can help drive compliance and that leads to better outcomes. Better outcomes is what every patient, physician, payor and biopharma wants. A good win-win.

Why on earth I hear you ask is this on a blog about R&D? Well that's simple. Every product we develop should be what is called a Targeted Treatment Solution (a term coined in the IBM Pharma 2010 "The Threshold of Innovation").

A targeted treatment solution is a healthcare package for treating specific disease pathologies (see the figure above). They will typically consist of biological rather than chemical molecules, based on clinically validated targets derived from a better understanding of particular disease pathology, and aimed at specific disease populations. They will measurably modify the diseases for which they are prescribed, with outcomes data and disease progression markers providing proof of efficacy. And a network of services for diagnosing, treating, monitoring and supporting patients will support them. This is what J&J is using the iPhone for!

These apps will enable pharmaceutical companies to generate more intellectual capital and get closer to patients, which will in turn help them to establish a dominant position in the treatment of particular disease pathologies.

Imperfect harmony: Alliances within the life sciences industry

The number of major alliances between large biopharmaceutical companies and smaller biotech firms or academic institutes is soaring. Yet the latest bio-partnering study conducted by IBM and Silico Research shows that many life sciences companies still struggle to collaborate effectively. There are four steps such companies can take to enhance their appeal. They can capitalize on areas of existing expertise to attract new partners; "sweeten" an offer with non-financial incentives; adopt a project-oriented perspective; and develop the skills to engage in different kinds of partnerships.

Read the full report - link