April 3, 2008
Conference acts as matchmaker for business and life sciences
Think you have a million-dollar idea? What about a 10-million-dollar idea, or a 100-million-dollar idea?
If so, you wouldn’t have been the only one at this year’s Invest Northwest meeting to think so. Invest Northwest is a place where the next cures for cancer—or at least diagnostic tests for cancer—vie to become a reality. The annual conference is organized by the Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association, a trade group dedicated to strengthening the region’s bioscience industry.
The meeting provides a window into an often mysterious process: how an idea born in a university laboratory makes its way from the ivory towers, to Wall Street, and eventually to the doctor’s office.
At Invest Northwest, business suits are more common than lab coats. Lawyers, accountants and management companies tout their services. Investors look for hot prospects, and new companies look for the deep-pocket backers whose funding can turn their ideas into a reality. The atmosphere is somewhere between a science fair and a speed-dating forum. The dating analogy is not so far off—in fact, many attendees talk about the right “marriage” between a scientific idea, management team and investor.
“I’m here to hear about the local biotech climate — people who are trying to establish companies — and the venture capitalists,” said Dennis Hanson, a technology manager at UW TechTransfer. “It’s the one event during the year that brings a lot of the [local biotech] companies together.” The two-day schedule includes panel discussions on current debates, seasoned professionals offering advice and sessions where new companies can pitch their ideas. This year’s event, the seventh annual, was held downtown March 18-19. A panel on early company formation emphasizes that a discovery doesn’t always follow a predictable path on the way to becoming a product. A novel result sometimes has no immediate application. But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t have promise. “Mark Roth of the Fred Hutch knew he could take hydrogen sulfide and put animals in a state of suspended animation,” said Steven Gillis, managing director at Arch Venture Partners and one of the panelists. “We had no idea what we would do with it, but it’s proven to be a big success.” The company, now known as Ikaria, developed a technology to slow metabolism in injured human tissue. Buddy Ratner, a UW professor of bioengineering who has started a number of companies, sat on the same panel. Ratner said he calculated that during his career his lab has consumed about $100 million in grant money researching medical implants. “At some point I started thinking about how I could pay this back to the state and the taxpayers, and it seemed like the entrepreneurial route was the way to go,” he said. Companies based on UW research give a percentage of profits back to patent holders and to the University. “Over the 32 years that I’ve been in the academic world, I’ve seen a turnaround,” Ratner said. “The university spent many years blocking ideas from getting out, and now it’s assisting professors who want to get their ideas out.” Ratner and entrepreneur Chris Somogyi approached the UW’s TechTransfer office and formed a company in 2007. Healionics Corp. describes its product “the Gore-Tex of biomaterials”: a porous scaffold that allows tissue and blood vessels to grow through it, encouraging the body to integrate medical implants rather than treating them as foreign objects. Healionics raised $1.7 million in its first round of financing and now seeks $6 million for more clinical trials. The product already is being used in a veterinary implant that treats glaucoma in dogs. “This meeting has been great for us,” said Robert Brown, a UW MBA graduate who is now chief executive officer of Healionics. The event is different from more general investor meetings, at which “I’m literally presenting a life science company against a shoe company,” he said. Another UW startup presenting in the same session is developing technology from the lab of Cecilia Giachelli, a professor of bioengineering. Giachelli’s research provides the basis for Calcionics Corp., which is developing a drug that stops calcium buildup from hardening arteries or medical implants. President Chip Jacob, a UW MBA graduate, uses his 10 minutes to explain Calcionics’ technology, its possible competitors, and financial outlook. The company is seeking $10 million in first-round funding and $25 million in second-round financial backing. “I have the business card of someone who saw my show. He wouldn’t return my call two weeks ago,” Jacob said afterward. “The bottom line is you just have to get on the road, or in the air, and get the word out.” Members of the Science and Engineering Business Association, a UW student group formed in 2000 that explores the interface of science and business, are volunteering at the meeting in exchange for free admission. The commercial prospects in life sciences are inspiring: ZymoGenetics, founded more than a quarter century ago by a trio that included two UW researchers, now employs more than 500 people. “Invest Northwest is a forum that brings together life sciences companies with investors,” said James Severson, the UW’s vice provost of intellectual property and technology transfer. “It provides an excellent opportunity for UW startups to network and learn the latest developments in the life sciences business in the region.” And while high stakes and dollar signs are in the air at this event, the TechTransfer employees say starting a company is just one of many options available to scientists. “We license a lot [of the University’s innovations] to companies that are already in existence,” said Alan Yen, a UW TechTranser software technology manager. “A startup company isn’t the only way.” The UW TechTransfer office, Yen says, can even help researchers create a Web site to distribute their software for free.
