Want To Spark A Little Innovation?
By Rob Wright, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader
Follow Me On Twitter @RfwrightLSL
Since its opening in 2008, the Michigan Life Science Innovation Center (MLSIC) has incubated 15 companies, which have created 92 jobs and attracted more than $75 million in investment in southeast Michigan. Harvard Business School opened an innovation incubator in 2010. Some experts, such Roberta Ness, M.D., M.P.H., Dean at the University of Texas of Public Health, believe the creation of innovation incubators to be great ways for clinicians to shake up their old ways of thinking and enhance their creative potential. For many institutions, fostering innovation is less a reality than an aspiration. However, there are numerous success stories. Inc. magazine notes that America’s college towns are perfect spots for fresh ideas and innovation. Unlike the “skunk works” of the past whereby companies would create secretive labs to work on projects which may never see the light of day, innovation incubators thrive on creating collaborations and providing resources for entrepreneurial start-ups. Even in socialist China, the innovation incubator idea is catching on. It should come as little surprise that Big Pharma is interested in getting in on the act. Take J&J for example.
The Janssen Incubator Approach
When J&J’s Janssen division expanded the R&D drug prioritization model developed in oncology across all therapeutic areas to determine the top targets for investment, Bill Hait, M.D., Ph.D., global head of Janssen R&D recalled to me the passion with which some teams received the news of their project being deprioritized. “The autoimmune team went ballistic because they had something very exciting in development regarding lupus,” he observed. “This is one of the reasons we developed the Janssen Incubator. If you are so excited about your project, and really think there is something potentially great, will you take the risk of going into the incubator to pursue it?” he asks. Just because a passionate researcher believes a project is worthy of acceptance into the incubator does not guarantee it will be granted. According to Hait, the company has developed a stringent review process for researchers to enter into the Janssen Incubator. If accepted into the venture program, they remain Janssen employees, continue to receive a salary, and are given access to research tools and facilities. “We can always bring them back,” he clarifies. “But they have a three-year window in which they must make significant progress.” Thus far, the company has selected three internal teams to place in the incubator. Hait views the Janssen Incubator as a great strategy for nurturing an innovative culture, while helping to communicate the process of rational research investment decision making. The three teams currently participating in the Janssen Incubator started in January 2013, and there is an ongoing process to select additional projects for investment this year.
QB3 to Collaborate With J&J
In June of this year, the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) signed an agreement with J&J Innovation to launch the San Francisco-based Janssen Labs near the Mission Bay UCSF campus. QB3’s associate director, Douglas Crawford, stated, “Connecting biotech start-ups in multiple areas of the bioscience industry is critical in helping entrepreneurs launch viable companies.” I imagine Bill Hait would agree with Crawford’s assessment. But another benefit, which can be very difficult to quantify, is the excitement created for a company’s culture when they become involved in these types of projects — especially a company as tenured as J&J. Perhaps this is one of the reasons the company has been so productive of late, even being recognized by Forbes as one of the world’s most productive companies of the past 10 years.