By Allan Maurer
CARY, NC—Innovalyst, a new consulting company formed last year by five veterans of the biotech and large pharma industries, focuses on the life science sector. It hopes to build a new business model for starting small biotech companies and help universities prioritize intellectual property ripe for commercialization.
The life science industry veterans, three formerly with GlaxoSmithKline, and all with experience bringing drugs to market, banded together in 2008 to create Innovalyst.
Their plan is to help entrepreneurs, companies and organizations shape strategy and catalyze innovation by moving intellectual property into the marketplace and accelerate startup success.
The firm is self-funded and not currently seeking any outside financing.
The five founders are:
Dr. John Bilello, currently President and Chief Scientific Officer of Precision Human Biolaboratory (PHB), a biotech company in Durham, NC developing label-free point-of-care biomarker detection technology. From 2002-2006 he was the director of Technology Development in Translational Medicine and Genetics at GlaxoSmithKline R&D.
Prior to joining GSK he was the director of Preclinical Research and Development at two successful biotechnology companies: SRA Life Sciences and VIRCO Lab USA.
Hugh Dawson has over 15 years of senior management and consulting experience in Biotech and Pharmaceutical business development and licensing.
His international deal history includes negotiating contracts in Germany, UK, Switzerland, Japan, China, Brazil, Canada, Holland, Africa and the US worth more than $2 billion in asset value.
Prior to joining Innovalyst, Dawson was the head of Global Biotech Licensing at Syngenta Biotechnology Inc., where his team was responsible for the development, use, transfer, marketing and management of intellectual property to support global Biopharmaceutical and Agricultural product pipelines.
Dr. Drake Eggleston built a new department that initiated new research areas and capabilities to support the drug discovery enterprise in partnership with Medicinal Chemistry for SmithKline Beecham and the GlaxoSmithKline Centers for Excellence in Drug Discovery. He has a 24-year career in the industry.
Dr. Stephan Ogenstad has over 25 years of industry experience. In 2006, he founded the biometrics firm Statogen Consulting, Wake Forest, North Carolina and served as the firm’s resident and CEO.
In 1997, he joined Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Massachusetts and served until 2006 as Vice President of Biometrics. Between 1982 and 1996, Ogenstad also served in executive positions at Amgen in California, Parexel International in Massachusetts, and Astra in Sweden.
Dr. Paul L. Domanico has over twenty years of experience in drug discovery, technology development, and executive management with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and E.I. du Pont de Nemours.
From late 2000 through February 2007, Domanico was VP for Technology Development for GSK Research and Development in the US.
Domanico tells TechJournal South the firm has honed in on a couple of principles.
Building relationships
“One is to identify the challenges that technology companies face and structure how they build relationships between business service providers.”
That, Domanico says, should lead “to a company with better tools, better business partners, more money, and the ability to build a better product more quickly,” while also helping service providers find clients.
In Phase II of what Innovalyst wants to do, says Domanico, the firm wants to help universities vet their intellectual property (IP) and create companies around their most promising IP. Domanico says the firm is talking now with several universities that include the engineering school at Duke about identifying ways to be more strategic about the IP formed at universities.
Tech Transfer offices at colleges and universities “Get bombarded by all types of IP that has not been vetted well enough,” says Domanico. At Penn State the firm is working on a program to help its College of Engineering become pro-active in vetting IP so the university would get a prioritized list of the most promising IP to work on.
Innovation Forum workshops
Through its Innovation Forum, Innovalyst holds a commercialization workshop and an affiliates workshop.
The Commercialization Workshops are held monthly to help life science organizations advance their business. These one-hour sessions are offered free of charge by the Innovation Forum. Life science organizations that meet the following criteria are invited to present.
The organization’s platform must have high scientific or technical merit, must be able to articulate its business goals and Innovalyst and its affiliates must possess the capability to contribute, and must be considering a relationship with Innovalyst and its affiliates the firm says. The Innovation Forum draws on the talent of over 40 affiliates.
The Affiliates’ Workshop is an approach towards learning more about life science innovations and individuals who can help you and your organization.
Various approaches are employed to engage in meaningful networking. Presentations are scheduled to share information and ideas on various business topics germane to the life sciences. The Affiliates’ Workshop meets every two months.
Both workshops are by invitation only.
Online: www.innovalyst.com
Southeast Venture Conference, February 29 – March 1, 2012 at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner, VA – Where Smart Money Meets Smart People.
www.seventure.org
© 2009, TechJournal South. All rights reserved.
